On October 9th, AFR joined with 41 organizations representing and advocating for students, families, taxpayers, veterans and service members, faculty and staff, civil rights and consumers, in a letter to Senator Lamar Alexander expressing concerns regarding his recently introduced bill, the Student Aid Improvement Act. Unfortunately, the bill fails to include any provisions that hold low-quality and sometimes predatory colleges accountable, and better protect students and taxpayers. Any reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA) must include robust consumer protections.
The signatories wrote, “Current law allows for students of color, low-income students, and veteran and active-duty military students to be targeted by, and over-represented in low-quality institutions, too many of which are for-profit colleges. This lack of accountability leads to students who cannot afford to repay the debt they take on, leaves students who took out loans based on misrepresentations and lies by institutions without recourse, and creates perverse incentives to target veterans for enrollment in low-quality programs.”