Betsy DeVos and her new administration may only be in the beginning stages of their authority, but there is no doubt that they have made the general public feel uncertain about the future of education. DeVos has plans to install a program that would provide vouchers for children attending public schools who want to transition to charter and private schools.
There have been few words from DeVos on issues relating to possible college reform and which programs will leave or stay. However, after she told Bernie Sanders that, “there’s no such thing as a free lunch,” some have assumed that combatting college tuition and rising debts will probably not be considered a monumental priority during her years in office.
In the face of this new leadership, “gainful employment,” an Obama administration law, may not have a future. The law was implemented in order to prevent prospective students from being granted loans if they had unknowingly planned to attend an unaccredited school. This bill was intended to protect students from accidentally attending and becoming saddled with debt by a fraudulent school.
The law required that any public or private school for higher education would only receive government funding in the form of loans if they could prove that their students are prepared and have established a pattern of receiving jobs after graduation. The primary goal of this law is to weed out any fake/scam schools, which have recently grown in number and are also getting most of their money from tax-funded college loans.
With the current charge of the education system, the gainful employment law has an uncertain future. The law definitely has a place in Washington and should be expanded upon in order for harsher measurements to be doled out due to high student debt. However, DeVos, who was the former president of the fraudulent Trump University, may not have the best interests of individual students in mind when making decisions.
The now-defunct Corinthian College was a repeat aggressor of this transgression. Currently, Corinthian owes one billion dollars for defrauding its students. Alicia Stevens, a former student of the fake institution, stated that during a job interview the interviewer told her, “your degree isn’t any good.”
Eighty six percent of the money for-profit universities receive are from government loans and funding. This is necessary as many students need these loans in order to even consider attending college. However, when the government irresponsibly hands out tax-payed loans to schools that will not support or elevate its students, they are then investing in a scam which will eventually hit the students the hardest.
Creating stricter guidelines for the gainful employment act as well as enforcing severe and consistent check ups of all universities will be a step towards addressing the increasing monetary issues with colleges in America. By limiting the loaning process of money to low-performing colleges, students will be able to avoid some of the troubling accounts of for-profit companies. These schools will then no longer be able to take advantage of government loaning systems and, most importantly, the students.
