Washington, D.C. — Ahead of today’s “Protecting College Students: The Importance of Accountability During COVID-19” event, the Center for American Progress released two columns highlighting accountability issues at stake for college students.
In “The Trump Administration Has Set Up Students To Be Harmed by Unscrupulous Colleges During This Recession,” Ben Miller, CAP vice president for Postsecondary Education, warns that unlike during the last recession, when the Obama administration put in place important protections for students, institutions looking to take advantage of students couldn’t have asked for a better four years than what the Trump administration afforded.
Rather than promoting any sort of meaningful agenda for higher education, this administration simply pursued a goal of undoing protections for students and borrowers implemented by the prior administration. As another economic downturn deepens, accountability is in shreds.
In “Now Is the Time To Fix Cohort Default Rates,” Miller argues that the pandemic-related pause on student loan payments creates a window of opportunity to fix the broken cohort default rate system. Currently, the ineffective system has allowed all but a handful of colleges to avoid sanctions and accountability when too many former students default on their federal loans.
If reforms are implemented now—including closing loopholes and supplementing the default rate with a repayment rate—replacement measures would be afforded enough runway to go into effect without causing a shock to the system or putting student borrowers at risk.
Media interested in covering the college accountability event should RSVP here.
Click here to read “The Trump Administration Has Set Up Students To Be Harmed by Unscrupulous Colleges During This Recession” by Ben Miller.
Click here to read “Now Is the Time To Fix Cohort Default Rates” by Ben Miller.
For more information on this topic or to speak with an expert, contact Morgan Finkelstein [email protected].