Third Way Applauds Biden Administration’s Gainful Employment Rule

WASHINGTON — Third Way released the following statement from Lanae Erickson, Senior Vice President for Social Policy, Education & Politics:

“Today, the Department of Education released its final Gainful Employment (GE) rule—solidifying the strongest-ever federal regulation to keep taxpayer dollars from flowing to low-quality, low-payoff career education programs.

“Requiring job training programs that take in millions in federal student aid to show they equip students with the skills needed to find stable employment and pay back their educational debt is a commonsense mandate. And the addition of the new requirement in this rule that most of a program’s graduates go on to outearn their peers with a high school diploma takes a step further to shield students from the financial harm posed by predatory, low-value programs that leave them worse off than if they’d never enrolled. GE will provide critical consumer protections for students—among them half a million currently attending career education programs where graduates do not go on to pass that intuitive high school earnings bar.

“Through its regulatory efforts to strengthen and reinstate the GE rule, the Biden Administration has shown a laudable commitment to improving the value proposition offered by taxpayer-funded higher education programs across the country. When today’s final rule goes into effect next summer, it will bring with it a fresh chapter in ensuring that federally-supported colleges are held to account for delivering on their promises to students.”