Third Way Statement on Bipartisan Senate Vote to Close the 90/10 Loophole
WASHINGTON — Third Way released the following statement from Tamara Hiler, Director of Education:
“This morning’s vote in the Senate marks a historic victory to close the egregious 90/10 loophole that has for decades allowed predatory institutions to aggressively recruit military-connected students for their hard-earned tuition benefits—both wasting taxpayer funds and jeopardizing veterans’ ability to receive a high-quality postsecondary education. The bipartisan nature of the vote proved once again that protecting defrauded students from predatory institutions is not a partisan issue.
“Despite a rule put in place decades ago requiring for-profit colleges to demonstrate their market viability by bringing in at least 10 percent of their revenue from sources outside of Title IV financial aid, for-profit colleges have been able to skirt this law by seeking out other sources of federal revenue in the form of military benefits, including billions in Post-9/11 GI Bill dollars from the Department of Veterans Affairs and funds from the Department of Defense Tuition Assistance Program.
“As a result, military-connected students have been disproportionately targeted by proprietary institutions over the years through aggressive and sometimes fraudulent recruitment practices, leaving these students at heightened risk of using up their education benefits at poor-quality schools that won’t support them through degree completion or may leave them with credentials that have little value in the job market.
“Today’s vote sews shut this loophole once and for all by counting all federal funding towards the 90 percent side of the funding ratio. This will finally give us the true market test and quality assurance measure Congress intended by forcing these proprietary institutions to demonstrate whether they offer enough value for someone other than the federal government to pay for students to attend.
“We applaud Congress, and specifically Senators Tom Carper (D-DE), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), James Lankford (R-OK), and Jerry Moran (R-KS), for working together to help the Senate take this commonsense step to protect taxpayer dollars and ensure our higher education system better serves those who served our country, and we look forward to President Biden signing this measure into law as soon as possible.”