
Protect Students and Taxpayers is a coalition of organizations working on behalf of students, veterans, faculty and staff, civil rights advocates, researchers, and others concerned about unaffordable student debts and predatory practices. The coalition strongly supports accountability provisions that offer college students commonsense consumer protections. We oppose the delay, dismantling or weakening of policies that could prevent taxpayer dollars being wasted, and we advocate for increased accountability for college programs that overcharge and underdeliver. Through research, advocacy and litigation, we seek to improve transparency, oversight and accountability in higher education and to address the disproportionate impact that predatory practices by colleges have on students of color, low-income students and veterans.
Our coalition opposes deceptive practices by colleges regardless of the sector of higher education in which they occur. However, the evidence is clear that predatory conduct that harms students and taxpayers is concentrated in the for-profit sector. The governance structure of for-profit colleges creates an incentive to maximize profits rather than value for students. In contrast, nonprofit and public institutions have governance structures that are designed to prevent individual enrichment.
Latest Updates
- Coalition Welcomes Department of Education’s Third-Party Servicer Guidance | March 2023
- Understanding State Authorization, Reciprocity, and NC-SARA to Protect Distance Education Students | March 2023
- Letter to the 118th Congress | February 2023
- Coalition Letter on Pell Eligibility for Students Who Are Incarcerated, Implementing 90/10 Loophole Regulations, and Regulating Institutional Changes in Ownership | August 2022
- Over a Dozen Organizations and Over 300 Signers Urge Education Department to Implement a Strong Borrower Defense Rule | August 2022
- Coalition Letter Urging ED to Ensure Ban on Incentive Compensation is Being Followed by Colleges and OPMs | June 2022
Key Coalition Materials
- Protect Students and Taxpayers Coalition Two-pager | October 2020
- Coalition Letter to the 118th Congress Setting Out Our Shared Accountability Priorities | February 2023
- “Shattered” the Faces of the For-Profit College Crisis | 2019
- Gainful Employment: A Civil Rights Perspective
- Study on Earnings and Debt of For-Profit Students in Certificate Programs | February 2018
- Impact of Gainful Employment Rule on Students Attending the Career Programs by Demographic | July 2015
- Student Protections and the Value of a Gainful Employment Rule | TICAS, December 2021
- Voters Overwhelmingly Support Guardrails on For-Profit Colleges, Finds TCF and Data for Progress Poll |The Century Foundation, January 2021
- Coalition Letter to the Department of Education Seeking Transparency | March 2021
- For-Profit Colleges Are Not Allies of HBCUs | Op-Ed, January 2022
- 2022 Negotiated Rulemaking | New America & TICAS, March 2022