Obama administration’s crackdown on for-profit colleges goes into effect

After years of challenges, the Obama administration’s crackdown on for-profit colleges will go into effect Wednesday.

The so-called gainful employment regulations require that a typical graduate of a career college – or school that trains students specifically for jobs — maintain annual loan payments that are less than 8% of their earnings or less than 20% of their discretionary income. Programs that don’t meet these requirements would be at risk of losing their federal financial aid funding.

The regulations are part of a years-long push from the Obama administration to increase scrutiny on for-profit colleges, amid accusations that the schools persuade often low-income students to take on high debt loads with empty promises of a successful career. Critics argue that the rules amount to a government overreach and that by forcing programs to close, they’ll curtail access to higher education for non-traditional students who require flexibility often not offered at non-profit universities.

The Department of Education first proposed a version of the rules in 2011, but a federal judge struck them down in 2012. A new set of rules published by the Department in 2014, survived court challenges from two different college trade associations earlier this year.

Now it appears the only thing that could stop the Department from enforcing the rules is an act of Congress.

-more-

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/obama-administration%e2%80%99s-crackdown-on-for-profit-colleges-goes-into-effect/ar-AAcpb2r