Dive Brief:
- Despite the for-profit higher education sector's track record for having students disproportionately represented in loan default numbers, presidential candidate Marco Rubio is pushing for expansion.
- USA Today reports that Rubio has been talking up for-profit schools on the campaign trail, advocating a change to accreditation rules that would let even more vocational schools and online institutions access federal student aid.
- Rubio’s plan for higher education includes creating a new accrediting body that would make more alternative providers eligible for federal aid, and proponents argue his bill is a good one because of the accountability measures it would require for accreditation — including high job placement and student loan repayment rates.
Dive Insight:
Statistically, the Florida senator's constituents enroll in for-profit higher education in greater numbers than their counterparts nationwide. He defended Corinthian Colleges before it went bankrupt, urging the U.S. Department of Education to be lenient so as not to disrupt the education of existing Corinthian students. Critics point out his defense came after $13,000 in political donations from Corinthian to Rubio between 2010 and 2013. Some Congressional accreditation reformers in Congress approve of Rubio’s proposal, which is co-sponsored by Colorado Democratic Senator Michael Bennet.
Among those opposed is AAC&U President Carol Geary Schneider, who published a statement last week urging higher education institutions and their accreditors to define student outcomes that go beyond the ROI focus that Rubio and others — including, in some ways, the Obama administration — have latched onto.
