Third Way Statement on the Gutting of Consumer Protection Regulations in Higher Ed

WASHINGTON—Third Way issued the following statement from Lanae Erickson Hatalsky, Vice President of Social Policy and Politics:

“Postsecondary education is necessary to succeed in the modern economy, so it is more important than ever for students to attend institutions that are worthy of their time and hard-earned money. Today’s announcement by the Trump Administration that it plans to roll back two key consumer protection regulations undermines our ability to protect taxpayers and students from being fleeced by high-cost, low-quality programs that leave those who attend worse off than when they started. Gutting the gainful employment rules is equivalent to handing a blank check of taxpayer dollars to even the most low-performing programs, to the tune of an additional $4.2 billion over the next decade in the form of grants and loans to failing programs. And blocking the borrower defense rules will slam the door shut on students that have been actively defrauded, leaving them with no relief. Make no mistake, the rollback of these rules is an invitation for more poor-quality higher education programs to woo students into debt, cash taxpayers’ check, and provide little value to either those students or our country. We already have a huge quality problem in our higher education system. These actions intentionally aggravate that problem simply to make an ideological point.”