ROLLBACK: The U.S. Department of Education has begun the process to roll back two regulations aimed at penalizing colleges for making misleading claims about graduate outcomes, and protecting students who may have been misled.
The former, more commonly known as the “gainful-employment” rule, would cut federal aid to programs where a graduate’s income could not cover their loan payments. The latter rule is the “borrower-defense-to-repayment” regulation that would forgive loans for such students who feel they have been defrauded by the school.
Here is the letter (PDF) from the administration that outlined its reasons for postponing the borrower defense rules, which were set to go in effect on July 1. It is unclear when or how these rules will change over coming months as officials and higher education stakeholders restart discussions.
As Inside Higher Ed reports, private colleges applaud the move led by Secretary Betsy DeVos, while consumer advocacy groups and others including the United Negro College Fund and the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education have expressed concerns.
