Vet and student speaks up for career colleges

When our men and women fighting for our country come home from Afghanistan and Iraq--many of them will be seeking ways to further their education. Spending four years at State U. isn't the answer for all of them.

It wasn't the answer for Duroy Bennett, Jr., an eight year Navy vet who is enrolled at a for-profit college.

He writes in Big Peace:

But even as legislators have worked to make higher education an affordable reality for veterans through a more robust GI Bill, the promise of education and a smooth transition from soldier to citizen might ring hollow for my yet-returned brothers in arms, lest the Administration’s assault on career college institutions is prevented.

A recently-proposed initiative by the Department of Education jeopardizes the ability of veterans to pursue a secondary education degree by crippling for-profit career colleges and universities. The rule – designated yet misnamed the Gainful Employment Rule – unfairly mandates that if selectively-imposed loan repayment standards were not met several financial aid programs would be eliminated.

The regulation would impose unrealistic federal student loan repayment standards on career colleges, for little reason beyond that bureaucrats in the Department of Education – like all too many in the administration – are reflexively opposed to private sector competition. Those institutions, perhaps like the one I attended, who fail to meet the proposed mandates of the new regulatory regime, will be denied federal aid for their students.

Like those who came before me and those who will follow, career colleges afforded me balance: family, school and career. But if this big government measure becomes a reality, would-be student veterans will find themselves without education options and without a future of their choosing.

Related posts:

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War on for-profit colleges' Jayson Blair exposed by Gawker
Sun-Times: Feds shouldn't punish career colleges
Don't punish career colleges
Issa's oversight committee to look at GAO report on career colleges
Tom Harkin attacks career colleges
GAO revises its negative report about for-profit schools
The Department of Education's war on career colleges
Idiotic edu-crats attacking for-profit colleges

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