To: Negotiated Rulemaking Committee

From: Yael Shavit and Adam Welle (representing State Attorneys General)

Subject: Preliminary Thoughts on Gainful Employment

Date: January 17, 2022 

We write to offer our preliminary reaction to the Gainful Employment issue paper circulated last 

week. We are grateful for the opportunity to participate in this Negotiated Rulemaking and look 

forward to working with the Department to help design effective and meaningful regulations. At 

the outset, we would like to offer our perspective from years of addressing student complaints 

and undertaking investigations and enforcement actions against for-profit schools that have 

caused devastating harm to borrowers while enriching themselves through access to Title IV 

funds. 

While we look forward to discussing additional ways to create robust protections for students, 

we feel strongly that the 2014 Gainful Employment Rule (“2014 Rule”) should serve as the 

baseline for the Department’s present rulemaking. The Department finalized the 2014 Rule 

following a thorough and extensive negotiated rulemaking process. The 2014 Rule established 

important protections for students and taxpayers, ensuring that those who enroll and take out 

student loans to attend career education programs receive education that will allow them, at a 

minimum, to repay those loans. The 2014 Rule also empowers prospective students to make 

informed decisions about their education by requiring schools to provide prospective students 

with important information about student outcomes at the programs they are considering. 

State Attorneys General have devoted considerable time and resources to addressing the fallout 

from the lack of safeguards and standards that pre-dated the 2014 Rule. It is now clear that a 

large segment of for-profit institutions enrolled students in our states with false promises of a 

quality education and training, ultimately leaving students buried in debt and with no meaningful 

career prospects. Such institutions are only able to continue to engage in such destructive 

conduct because of their access to and support from Title IV funding. Through our experience 

undertaking investigations and enforcement in this space, and from the 2014 Rule’s effects for 

the brief period it operated, we can say with confidence that the metrics and process established 

by the 2014 Rule would have prevented many such schools from continuing to operate programs 

that harm borrowers. 

In light of the 2014 Rule’s history of effective implementation, and the wealth of data and 

experience supporting its design, we strongly encourage the Department to adopt Gainful 

Employment regulations which incorporate the 2014 Rule as a baseline. While experience in the 

intervening years may have identified potential minor modifications and additional 

accountability metrics that could provide further protections for borrowers, we recommend that 

any additional metrics be added to the 2014 Rule’s metrics. 

We further ask the Department to fulfill its obligation to ensure that borrowers are provided with 

critical information by restoring the Consumer Disclosures Template in its prior form and 

mandating that schools make all included disclosures. Prior to the removal of key data 

disclosures in 2018 and 2019, the Consumer Disclosures Template contained critical 
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information, including, inter alia, average graduate debt, monthly loan payment amounts, 

average graduate earnings, job placement data, licensure information, and employment fields. 

This information is critical for prospective students considering whether to enroll in a program, 

and there is no legitimate reason for withholding such information. Such data will further help 

prevent our states’ consumers from being misled in making important decisions about their 

educational future and alleviate the need for enforcement actions by our offices. 

We appreciate the Department’s consideration. 

Thank you, 

Yael Shavit and Adam Welle (representing State Attorneys General)