Civil and Human Rights Coalition Urges Appellate Court to Protect Students from Predatory For-Profit Colleges
WASHINGTON – Today, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights joined 27 groups in filing a friend-of-the-court brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in support of the Department of Education’s rule that career training programs must “prepare students for gainful employment” in order to qualify as an institution eligible to receive federal student aid funds.
The case, known as Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities (APSCU) v. Duncan, is a challenge to the “gainful employment” rule, issued by the Department of Education last year. The rule addresses predatory career training programs, most often found at for-profit colleges, which fail to prepare students for jobs that would enable them to repay their federal loans, thereby leaving many worse off than before they enrolled.
“For-profit colleges are using the American Dream as bait to trap vulnerable students into underperforming schools and saddle them with a lifetime of debt,” said Nancy Zirkin, executive vice president of The Leadership Conference. “The Department of Education acted in the best interests of students by trying to hold predatory schools accountable for delivering on their promise of career training that will enable students to find job and repay their student debt.”
Predatory for-profit colleges charge high prices and provide low-quality training with few to no job placement opportunities and abysmal graduation rates. These institutions target the constituencies of The Leadership Conference, including students of color, low-income students, and veterans, all of whom make up a disproportionate share of these schools’ student population. The brief was filed jointly with Public Citizen, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and organizations representing students, educators, veterans, and advocates for college education.
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 200 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The Leadership Conference works toward an America as good as its ideals. For more information on The Leadership Conference and its 200-plus member organizations, visit www.civilrights.org.
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