CECU On Gainful Employment Data Release

The following statement can be attributed to Steve Gunderson, president and CEO of Career Education Colleges and Universities:

“The U.S. Department of Education has fulfilled what was our greatest concern around the gainful employment regulation – the use of faulty data that lacks context.

“It is absolutely absurd to compare totally different fields of study and suggest that programs traditionally taught in public institutions have higher incomes than programs taught in proprietary colleges.  This reflects the continuing ideological bias of this Department against our sector and is yet another example of why Americans are tired of out-of-touch bureaucrats in Washington.

“One of the fundamental lessons we have learned from reviewing gainful employment data is that where a person lives can have a significant impact on their earnings – you can have the exact same program in a high wage urban area in California and a low-wage rural area in the Midwest and have two totally different outcomes related to earnings.

“Without seeing the Departments underlying datasets it is impossible to fully answer any of these questions. But geography, age, race and gender are all factors here.”