Gainful employment proposal looks at college vs. high school grads’ earnings
Natalie Schwartz
March 9, 2022
Proposed revisions would attempt to ensure career education graduates can find work and pay off their loans.
The U.S. Department of Education this week released new details about provisions it wants to include in its forthcoming gainful employment rule, a measure that would hold postsecondary career education programs responsible for ensuring their graduates can find work and pay off their student loans.
In a new draft of the rule, the Ed Department is proposing using two metrics to assess career education programs. One would compare college graduates’ earnings to their student loan debts, while a new measure would compare their earnings to those of high school graduates in their states.
If programs are graduating students whose debt-to-earnings ratios are too high or whose earnings don’t leave them better off than high school graduates in their states, the programs could lose access to federal financial aid. The rule covers almost all programs at for-profit colleges as well as nondegree programs at nonprofit institutions.
