Tens of thousands of students in pursuit of a college degree remain in danger of having their hopes dashed, as an ideologically driven sect of Democrat politicians continue to wage a political war on for-profit colleges. CASE has highlighted the continued attempts by liberal activists, organizations and elected officials to sink private education opportunities that involve institutions that don’t march to the beat of the traditional, and overwhelmingly left-leaning, education establishment.

Now the Wall Street Journal reports the return of Robert Shireman, the shady and discredited former Obama administration official whose singular agenda is to eliminate for profit colleges. He’s turned up in New York, and apparently succeeded in selling NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo on his plan. Writes the Journal:

“Robert Shireman was exiled from the Obama Administration after getting caught playing footsie with a short-seller betting against for-profit colleges. We lost track of him, but he was recently spotted in Albany canoodling with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to kill for-profit colleges in the state.

“Readers may recall that Mr. Shireman executed the government takeover and expansion of student loans in the early Obama years. He then inspired the 2011 Obama gainful-employment rule that was tossed by federal courts. He left the Education Department after news reports chronicled how he had conferred with outside groups and short-seller Steven Eisman. He has continued to drive his ideological war on for-profits from the liberal Century Foundation.”

The plan is to single out just these colleges with legislation that requires them to achieve unattainable funding goals, such as requiring that 20 percent of school funding come from private sources. This means funding not from loans, grants, or scholarships, in other words, low-income students. The legislation also forces mandates on how and where school funding should be spent, another layer of sabotage on their operations.

In their zeal to use New York as a testing ground for a future ideological battle over education, Cuomo and Shireman are flaunting a callous disregard for the less fortunate and low-income Americans who benefit tremendously from the schools they seek to shutter.  As the Journal article notes, their agenda is backed by a phony study with unreliable data, while recent federal data shows that for profit colleges have comparable student outcomes with regard to job prospects and paying back loans, and often far better graduation rates than state-run community colleges.

The willingness to use bad data and discredited evidence as a means to an end shocks the sensibilities, and should awaken us to the larger, and very dangerous agenda being peddled here. The goal is control of education, control of an agenda, and Cuomo and Shireman have made it abundantly clear they don’t care who gets hurt in the process.  As the Journal concluded:

“Mr. Shireman wants to use the New York bill as a template for other states, starting with Maryland and California, and ultimately for federal regulation when a Democrat wins the White House. He and Mr. Cuomo are selling this as a way to help low-income students when the result would be precisely the opposite.”