WRITING ON THE WALL: In 2015 the Obama Administration introduced gainful employment regulations to drive accountability in vocational programs at for-profit colleges and non-degree programs at community colleges. To receive federal financial aid, these institutions must meet minimum debt-to-income ratios to ensure students who graduate make enough money to offset the debt they take on to enroll.
In January 2017 the first round of data will be published about how colleges are performing under the gainful employment rule. In the meantime Politico has rounded up some of what for-profit colleges are disclosing to investors about their programs’ performance. For instance Capella Education reports none of its programs are failing, though some are under warning, and 10 percent of DeVry’s programs are failing.
