Congressional Democrats Want Legal Review of OPMs
Katherine Knott
December 6, 2022
The lawmakers want the Education Department to go beyond what a federal watchdog recommended in reviewing 2011 guidance for online program managers.
The chairs of the Senate and House education committees want the U.S. Department of Education to step up oversight of the outside contractors that colleges and universities use to run online programs in order to ensure the third-party companies aren’t engaging in abusive recruiting practices.
Specifically, the chairs and other congressional Democrats recommended in a letter sent Friday that the department conduct a “formal legal review” of the current rules for online program managers (OPMs), which is a step further than what the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office suggested in a report on the companies earlier this year. They also want the department to review disclosure requirements for OPM arrangements and to provide data on documented violations regarding OPMs.
