Durbin Introduces Legislation To Protect Students And Taxpayers From Predatory Higher Education Practices
The PROTECT Students Act would safeguard students from predatory for-profit colleges and ensure higher education meets needs of hard-working students; Rep. Takano to introduce companion legislation in the House later this month
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) today introduced the Preventing Risky Operations from Threatening the Education and Career Trajectories of Students Act, also known as the PROTECT Students Act. The bill will help safeguard students, including service members and veterans, and taxpayers from predatory and anti-student higher education practices and ensure that higher education meets the needs of hard-working students. The PROTECT Students Act represents common-sense consumer protections for students and holds predatory institutions, including for-profit schools, accountable when they engage in unfair, deceptive, and other fraudulent practices.
The Department of Education’s recent mass layoffs especially targeted staff that work on higher education enforcement within the Federal Student Aid Office. The Trump Administration and Education Secretary McMahon have stated that these layoffs are to reduce duplicative roles, but in reality, they gut professionals responsible for safeguarding transparency and accountability over the predatory for-profit college industry—an industry that has abused students and taxpayer dollars for far too long.
U.S. Representative Mark Takano (D-CA-39) will introduce companion legislation in the House later this month. U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) are also cosponsors of the legislation.
“Time and time again, for-profit colleges have scammed students into taking on mountains of student debt without offering a viable degree or career path—and sometimes have even shuttered their doors while a student is enrolled. Our students deserve to be protected from the predatory tactics of these for-profit schools,” Durbin said. “The first Trump Administration let for-profit colleges off the hook by rolling back protections like the Gainful Employment Rule and stopping the review of borrower defense claims. I am introducing the PROTECT Students Act to stand up for students when the Trump Administration won’t by ensuring that for-profit schools are held accountable for taking advantage of students.”
“Fraudsters are feeling empowered by this Administration, and the American people are looking for their government to do something,” said Takano. “Students who are hoping to better themselves through a college education deserve protections in law to ensure that the school they choose upholds their promise of high-quality education and a degree. Students deserve to have the backing of laws to take on for-profit colleges, discredited universities, and loan providers who deceive them.”
The for-profit college industry has a long record of precipitous closures and predatory practices, including misrepresenting costs, transferability of credits, and job opportunities. For-profit colleges also historically have targeted service members, veterans, students of color, low-income students, and immigrant students. For-profit colleges enroll only eight percent of all postsecondary students but account for30 percent of all federal student loan defaults. Despite their poor track record, they received more than $16 billion in federal student aid in the 2023-2024 school year.
Now more than ever, protections are needed to ensure that students are treated fairly and that taxpayer investments in higher education are protected from high-risk, for-profit programs and schools. The PROTECT Students Act takes common-sense steps to prevent abusive practices and safeguard taxpayer dollars.
Specifically, the PROTECT Students Act would:
- Expand protections for students and taxpayers. The legislation would create a new statutory framework that ensures career programs do not leave students with debt they cannot repay and that career programs will deliver the promised earnings to students, as well as make it easier for defrauded students and students who attended for-profit colleges that precipitously closed to receive relief.
- Ensure integrity at institutions of higher education. The legislation would authorize the Department of Education to ensure financially interested parties are signatories to the federal contract that makes a college eligible to receive Title IV aid, improve the ability of the Department to recoup funds from schools and owners that engage in misconduct, set instruction spending minimums forschools, and prevent for-profit colleges from employing owners who previously engaged in misconduct.
- Improve oversight of high-risk colleges. The legislation would codify the Federal Student Aid Enforcement Unit to investigate fraud and predatory practices by for-profit colleges and ensures the Department of Education has the staff and resources to adequately respond to allegations of institutional misconduct, as well as create a federal task force to help federal agencies coordinate oversight over the for-profit college industry and process student complaints.
- Improve access to student and taxpayer information. The legislation would create better transparency with regard to high-risk institutions and for-profit colleges seeking to convert to non-profit status, including compliance with 90/10 rule and a number of borrower defense claims filed and granted, as well as require additional transparency by accreditation agencies and disclosure of data by all schools on their debt-to-earnings ratio and graduates’ earnings.
The PROTECT Students Act is endorsed by the Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS), the Century Foundation, American Federation of Teachers (AFT), National Consumer Law Center, Project on Predatory Student Lending PPSL), Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC), National Education Association (NEA), New America, National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), Center for American Progress, EdTrust, and Young Invincibles.
“At a time when the Trump administration is attacking higher education to line the pockets of billionaires, the PROTECT Students Act helps us fight against fraud and fight for the colleges and universities that students deserve. Predatory, fly-by-night colleges put profits over people, duping those who just want to improve their lives into spending and borrowing huge amounts of cash fora low-quality education with limited job prospects. The PROTECT Students Act would codify existing protections for students and create accountability, not a free pass for rogue colleges—and it has our full and unequivocal support,” said Randi Weingarten, President, American Federation of Teachers.
“Every student loan borrower who has been duped by a predatory school and is saddled with federal student loan debt understands that we must reform the federal student loan system. The PROTECT Students Act increases school accountability while strengthening the relief programs intended to help student loan borrowers who are harmed by bad actors,” said Kyra Taylor, Staff Attorney, National Consumer Law Center.
“For-profit colleges frequently target low-income students, Black and Latino students, and veterans when marketing high-cost, low-quality college programs that leave graduates with few job prospects and mountains of debt. The PROTECT Student Act would protect students – and taxpayers – from investing in such programs. This bill is a critical step forward in ensuring that the nation’s higher education system works for all students,” said Carolyn Fast, Director of Higher Education Policy and Senior Fellow, The Century Foundation.
“The PROTECT Students Act represents a comprehensive effort to place in statute critical student and taxpayer protections, and we thank Senator Durbin and Representative Takano for their leadership. Amid ongoing legislative and executive threats to such protections, the PROTECT Students Act represents a counterweight to efforts that would leave students—especially Black and Latino students, low-income students, and student veterans—more vulnerable to predatory actors and taxpayer-funded financial aid programs more at risk of waste, fraud, and abuse by high-cost, low-quality programs,” said Sameer Gadkaree, President, The Institute for College Access & Success.
“Higher education should be an opportunity, not a financial trap. For far too long, waste, fraud and abuse have run rampant at scam schools, leaving borrowers holding the bag while predatory companies pocket billions of taxpayer dollars. This bill is a bold and necessary step to close loopholes, enforce accountability, and ensure that higher education truly serves students, not corporate interests. By strengthening and reinforcing commonsense protections like borrower defense and gainful employment, this legislation puts students and taxpayers first,” said Ashley Harrington, Senior Director of Policy and Advocacy, Project on Predatory Student Lending
A one-pager on the bill is available here and a section-by-section is available here.
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