Education Department Illegally Guts the Gainful Employment Rule

On August 17, 2017, the Department of Education announced its illegally gutting of the gainful employment regulation by allowing all failing programs to enroll students without warning them, allowing all programs to appeal ratings based on data that may significantly overstate the actual earnings of their graduates, and giving Secretary DeVos wide discretion to change a program’s rating. The Department has taken this action without going through the legally required process for amending regulations. Earlier this year, ED had already taken action to delay for a year the rule’s requirement that students be given key cost and outcome data before they enroll in federally funded career education programs.