Source: https://www.theobjectivestandard.com/issues/2011-summer/private-sector-colleges/
Timestamp: 2019-04-18 23:00:29+00:00

Document:
Private-sector colleges and universities, also known as career colleges or for-profit colleges, educate more than three million people annually in the United States. These colleges—which include the University of Phoenix, ITT Technical Institutes, Kaplan University, Strayer University, Capella University, and Monroe College—provide vital services to Americans seeking to improve their lives. Programs in career colleges range from information technology and business administration, to commercial art and interior design, to allied health care and nursing, to accounting and finance, to criminal justice and law. These highly focused, career-specific programs enable people to achieve their occupational goals and to become productive, self-supporting, prosperous, and happy. These colleges are, for many people, pathways to the American dream.
Unfortunately, certain individuals and agencies in the U.S. government are seeking to cripple and destroy these schools via an assault that includes fraud, collusion, and defamation. Before turning to the details of this assault, however, let us take a closer look at the enormous life-serving value provided by career colleges.
Career colleges are businesses that provide career-specific educational programs. They cater to “nontraditional” students—those who do not attend traditional postsecondary schools such as state universities (e.g., UCLA) or private nonprofit colleges (e.g., Williams College).
Career-college students have demographics similar to community-college students, but are on average a few years older. They are predominantly working adults seeking to improve their lives through educational programs that are directly related to their career goals. Many are employed full-time while enrolled; most have rent or mortgages to pay; many have families and dependent children to care for; and many have served in the military. These students choose career colleges because these institutions meet their needs better than the alternatives—whether traditional postsecondary schools or community colleges.
Among other factors, whereas state universities and nonprofit colleges offer courses, programs, and degrees that have little or no value in the marketplace (e.g., “Tree Climbing,” “The Joy of Garbage,” “Queer Musicology,” “Feminist Studies”), career colleges provide streamlined, career-focused training that is specifically designed to be of value to employers in the marketplace. Career colleges have no sports teams, fraternities or sororities, or the like, just market-oriented educational programs for people seeking to start, enhance, or change their careers.
In contrast to community colleges, which are not profit driven and rely heavily on direct subsidies from government, career colleges are profit driven and receive no direct subsidies. Thus, whereas budget deficiencies are requiring community colleges to turn away would-be students or place them on waiting lists for as long as three years,1 the profit motive incentivizes career colleges constantly to innovate and expand to meet market demand. Thus, career colleges usually have no waiting lists and can start new students within a month of enrollment. And whereas both traditional schools and community colleges offer what is, for many people, insufficiently flexible scheduling, career colleges provide highly flexible scheduling—days, evenings, and weekends—that enables students to integrate career-enhancing education with their busy adult lives.
For these reasons and more, millions of Americans find career colleges to be crucial, life-serving values. One such student, forty-four-year-old Michelle Stewart, will earn her bachelor of science degree in health care management from Brown Mackie College this fall after a decade of effort.
Career schools offer [people] the opportunity to achieve their dreams no matter their background or station in life. The chance to further one’s education through these institutions of higher learning is critical in today’s society as many four-year universities and community colleges limit the curriculum available at their campuses and fail to offer the flexibility many working adults require. I am one of those people who can personally attest to the important, positive impact career colleges and universities have on people’s lives.
In 2001, at the age of 53, I faced a life-threatening heart condition and surgery, with less than a zero percent chance of recovery according to my cardiologist at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. . . . I had hopes of one day studying to become an attorney, until those dreams were dashed due to my declining health. Death was staring me in my face. I have been diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, a hereditary condition that took the life of my older sister in 1952 and complicated matters to beyond the reach of a miracle.
Nearly ten years later, after a grueling recovery process, here I am achieving my lifelong ambition at Herzing University Online, [pursuing] a Bachelor’s degree in legal studies and headed to law school. If it were not for such a caring staff and both their support and understanding, I would probably just be another number in a large university. Attending the legal studies program at Herzing was a dream come true, and a truly precious opportunity. . . .
Without [access to career colleges], many students like me, who would not be comfortable in a massive, impersonal four-year university, as well as students from lower-income and minority communities, would lose out on opportunities we so desperately want and need. Career colleges serve our needs well, and they are a perfect alternative for those who need extra attention, who need flexible schedules and who need an affordable education and real-world skills. . . .
With this in mind, let us turn to the U.S. government’s effort to cripple these all-American institutions.
In July 2010, the Obama administration’s Department of Education (DoE) released proposed regulations called “gainful employment” rules, which, if passed into law, would cripple and close many career colleges, dramatically reduce students’ options, and substantially increase the cost of a college education (by restricting competition) for those who could still afford to pursue one.
In short, the “gainful employment” rules would seriously damage or close private-sector colleges and universities across the country, thus harming everyone who works in them, everyone who invests in them, and everyone who attends or might one day benefit from attending a career college.
So why does the Department of Education seek to pass such rules?
Advocates of the rules claim, among other things, that (1) private-sector colleges and universities profit by receiving billions of dollars annually via federally funded student grants and loans; (2) their students take on too much debt and default too frequently; (3) their graduation rates are too low; and (4) given the foregoing, career colleges and their students represent an undue burden on U.S. taxpayers.9 Let us examine the validity and significance of these claims in order.
Existing laws and regulations provide the government with enormous advantages over private lenders. The government acquires its funds by taxing citizens, borrowing at below-market rates, or printing money; insures its loans on the backs of taxpayers; and ultimately uses the Internal Revenue Service as its collection agency. Private lenders, in contrast, must borrow their funds at market rates, insure their loans at market rates, and outsource collections at market rates. These coerced differences (among others) make it impossible for private lenders to compete with the government in providing student loans.
Given the government’s legally enforced monopoly on low-price, taxpayer-funded student loans, the government cannot morally exclude students of private-sector universities and colleges from receiving these funds.
Part of the government’s “justification” for excluding private-sector students from receiving government-funded student loans is the claim that these students have, on average, excessively high debt levels and default rates. But this claim does not withstand scrutiny.
To begin, note that in a fully moral, fully free market, with exclusively private funding, debt levels and default rates would be determined by voluntary agreements among private lenders, insurers, and borrowers. Government would be out of the picture. But given that the government has monopolized the student-loan industry, we have to analyze the situation and establish policy that makes moral sense within this improper, coercive context.
Although many students at private-sector colleges and universities take on substantial debt, so do many students at traditional schools and community colleges. In fact, the highest average debt levels are those of students attending four-year nonprofit colleges and universities.12 Yet the government is not seeking to apply the “gainful employment” rules to these students and their schools. Why? The government has no rational answer.
The average borrowing of students in proprietary bachelor’s degree programs is $24,635, which equates to a monthly loan payment of $283.50 over ten years (assuming the current 6.8% interest rate associated with most student loans, as set by Congress). The net monthly cost to the student is even lower when taking into consideration the personal income tax benefit they receive on deductible student loan expenses.
What about the government’s claim that career-college students have, on average, an excessively high rate of default on their loans?
It is true that the average default rate of students at career colleges (11.6 percent) is substantially higher than that of students at traditional state schools (4.4 percent) and nonprofit colleges (3.8 percent).14 But this is both unsurprising and irrelevant to the debate at hand.
This should not surprise anyone, but—contrary to the emphasis placed on this comparison by the enemies of career colleges—it is not the relevant comparison.
The relevant comparison is the average default rate between students attending career colleges and those attending community colleges, whose demographics are similar. Here we find a negligible difference: a default rate of 11.6 percent for career-college students compared to 10.1 percent for community-college students.16 And this small difference is more than offset by the following facts (which opponents of career colleges routinely ignore): Whereas community colleges pay no taxes, receive huge subsidies directly from government, and therefore have comparatively (and artificially) low tuition; career colleges pay huge taxes—as much as 40 percent of their revenue—receive no subsidies directly from government, and therefore have comparatively high tuition. Accordingly, whereas community-college students pay a fraction (if any) of the actual cost of their education, career-college students pay all (or most) of the actual cost of theirs. Given community-college students’ correspondingly lower debt levels, it is remarkable that their default rates are as high as they are. Likewise, given career-college students’ correspondingly higher debt levels, it is remarkable that their default rates are as low as they are.
In light of these frequently ignored facts, although community-college students have, on average, lower debt levels and slightly lower default rates than do career-college students, the former cost taxpayers much more money per student than do the latter (more on this below). Yet the government is not seeking to impose the same “gainful employment” rules on students attending community colleges. Why? Again, the government has no good reason.
Dealing with defaults is part and parcel of the lending business. If the government takes over (as it has) and lends money to students (as it does), then it must deal with default rates—and it morally must do so in the most equitable way possible given the improper, coercive context.
Given that the government refuses to relinquish its monopoly on student loans, it could at least allow colleges to limit the amount of money their students borrow. Career colleges want to limit loan amounts based on relevant factors such as the actual cost of the college and actual needs of particular students. But the government forbids them to do so and then complains about the resulting debt levels and default rates.
In any event, the solution to the problem is not to withhold government financing from some students on the basis of the debt levels or default rates of other students. Students are not cogs in a collective but individuals who morally deserve to be treated as such. For the government to penalize future students because of the debt levels or default rates of prior students is simply unjust.
Another claim made by the government and other advocates of the “gainful employment” rules is that the graduation rates of students attending career colleges are too low. Again, although it is true that the graduation rates of students at career colleges are, on average, lower than those of students at state universities and nonprofit colleges, this is not comparing apples to apples.
The relevant comparison here is: How do graduation rates of career-college students compare with those of community-college students? And, once again, the answer is telling. Graduation rates of students at career colleges are substantially higher—in fact, more than two times higher—than those of students at community colleges.17 Yet the government is not seeking to apply the “gainful employment” rules to community colleges and their students. Why? Again, the government has no good reason.
The final claim offered by the government in support of the “gainful employment” rules is that career colleges and their students represent an undue burden on taxpayers. But, on examination, this claim backfires.
Moreover, the government is making money on student loans. Although the DoE claims not to have the data on this, the logic is straightforward. The government has taken over an industry in which private lenders were running profitable businesses buying money at wholesale and lending it at retail. The government now lends money at roughly those same retail rates but buys it well below wholesale—or simply manufactures it.
The bottom line is that the government’s “argument” against funding the grants and loans of students who attend career colleges is baseless. Although this is well documented, certain government officials and agencies are evading these facts and persisting with “gainful employment” regulations that would block students from attending career colleges. How can they persist in light of the foregoing facts?
In August 2010, the Government Accountability Office (GAO)—which is supposed to provide Congress with factual data for use in the legislative process—produced a report in which it smeared the entire career-college sector, destroying billions of dollars of stockholders’ wealth in a matter of days. The report was the culmination of an “investigation” ordered and orchestrated by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) and executed by the GAO.
The alleged goal of the “investigation” was to determine whether career colleges were engaging in fraudulent or otherwise questionable marketing practices. Harkin sought this information for use in his then forthcoming hearings to be held by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pension (HELP) committee concerning federal student-aid funds being issued to students at career colleges.
Over two months, the GAO sent undercover agents posing as prospective applicants to fifteen career colleges, which it selected specifically because they had previously been accused of deceptive or fraudulent marketing practices.20 During the sting operation, GAO agents collected more than eighty hours of recordings, which allegedly would serve as the basis for the August Report.
In that report, the GAO claimed, among other things, that “four of the career colleges encouraged fraudulent practices” and that “all 15 colleges made deceptive or otherwise questionable statements” to the undercover applicants regarding matters such as “graduation rates, salaries of its graduates, and the expected length and cost of the program.”21 The GAO described these alleged statements in detail in its report to the HELP committee.
In November 2010—having already destroyed enormous amounts of wealth and damaged the reputations of countless schools and businessmen—the GAO posted to its website a “Revised Report,” and did so with no announcement, not even a press release. Why the stealth posting? The Revised Report (although still riddled with false data) was so grossly at odds with the August Report that it amounted to a confession on the part of the GAO that it had intentionally misrepresented the facts.
Whereas the August Report claimed that a college representative told an undercover applicant that the applicant “should” take out the maximum amount of federal loans even if he did not need all of the money, the Revised Report corrected this statement and confirmed that the college representative actually told the undercover applicant that he “could” take out the full amount of federal loans even if he did not need all of the money. This latter statement is precisely in compliance with the mandates of the DoE.
Whereas the August Report claimed that college representatives at two different schools failed to provide their schools’ graduation rates after being directly asked by the undercover applicants, the Revised Report corrected this allegation with respect to one school—by acknowledging that the college representative gave some general figures and stated that she would have to talk to career services to obtain specific numbers—and dropped the allegation altogether with respect to the other school.
Whereas the August Report claimed that a college representative told an undercover applicant that getting a job “was a piece of cake” and that graduates from this school are making $120,000 to $130,000 per year; in the recording that has since been released, there is no evidence of this conversation at all.
Whereas the August Report claims that “the college representative did not tell the graduation rate when asked directly,” in the recording that has been released, the question of graduation rate is never raised.
What has been the effect of this concerted assault on the career-college sector? Was the fallout limited to the fifteen schools included in the fraudulent sting operation? Was it supposed to be limited to them?
Could this assault get uglier? Unfortunately, yes.
Desai and McGaughy presented the two government officials with a 17-page document that severely criticized the career college sector. The document outlined recommended steps to be taken against career colleges to include actions by specific Congressional committees and an investigation to be conducted by the Government Accountability Office.
Neither Desai nor McGaughy were known for having expertise on the subject of post-secondary education. They brought little to the discussion aside from a game plan that, if implemented, could significantly degrade the value of publicly-traded stocks of for-profit colleges.
By the following year the key objectives outlined in the Desai/McGaughy document were met. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee chaired by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) held hearings that slammed career colleges.
As for Steven Eisman, on June 24, 2010, he provided testimony before the HELP committee, during which he described the career-college industry as “fundamentally unsound.” What motive could Eisman, a short-seller, possibly have for influencing Congress on this education matter? Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) provides a clue: “After Mr. Eisman’s congressional testimony, stocks of for-profit companies fell significantly.” Was Eisman’s congressional testimony the full extent of his influence? Hardly.
Documents CREW obtained from a lawsuit brought to compel the Department of Education to comply with its FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] obligations reveal that beyond his congressional testimony, Mr. Eisman worked actively behind the scenes to affect the outcome of Education’s regulatory process. Not only did Mr. Eisman meet with top Education Department officials leading the regulatory charge (by telephone and in-person) in early April 2010, including then Deputy Undersecretary Robert Shireman, he also circulated widely within the Education Department analyses he and his firm prepared of the for-profit education industry. This was all part of his lobbying effort for specific and more stringent gainful employment regulations that, if adopted, are likely to have a substantial negative effect on the market price of shares in for-profit education companies. As someone who is neither regulated by nor affected directly by the for-profit regulations, Mr. Eisman appears to have injected himself into the agency’s process for the sole purpose of causing a specific outcome to advance his own financial interests. . . .
And it gets even uglier.
But even in the 5 percent of documentation that the DoE has released, there is strong evidence of collusion between the DoE and short-sellers. Consider the following revelations.
There is much more, but the foregoing is enough to indicate the nature of the situation.
Could it be mere coincidence that the DoE’s second round of rulemaking included everything Desai, McGaughy, and Eisman suggested? Might these short-sellers’ efforts to steer the rulemaking process have been for the sake of “saving the students” and not for the sake of shorting the for-profit education market and lining their pockets? And is it possible that all these highly educated officials at the DoE were somehow genuinely ignorant about who these men were and what they might have been up to?
Fortunately, some people in Washington agree with you and are doing something about it.
Since issuing the proposed regulation, allegations have been made that DoE officials may have engaged in inappropriate communications with some investors with a financial interest in the outcome of the rulemaking process. These allegations have been bolstered by DoE documents released in response to several FOIA requests. In particular, the documents indicate that several investors contacted the DoE and met with officials involved in the development of the proposed rule while the rulemaking process was ongoing. . . .
While the released documents represent emails received or sent by officials directly involved in the development of the proposed rule, very few of the documents include communications received or sent by individuals with the Office of the Secretary. Consequently, questions about the propriety and extent of the Department’s interactions with these individuals will persist until we are able to review all of the documents maintained by the Department. Therefore, I request that you make public all Department of Education written correspondence, email or otherwise regarding the development of the proposed gainful employment regulation, and waive any deliberative process exemptions to ensure complete transparency. In compiling these documents, your search should include, but not be limited to, all individuals in the Office of the Secretary.
What will become of these inquiries and demands is yet to be seen.
As for the “gainful employment” rules, on June 2, 2011, the DoE released a 436-page document spelling out the details of its newly crafted regulations. The good news is that the vigilance of the career-college sector and its supporters has had some positive effect: The regulations are not as devastating as they otherwise would have been. The bad news is that the rules are still an extremely damaging assault on private-sector colleges and their students. The net effect on the career-college sector is that the “final rules” will destroy “only” 5 percent of existing programs (instead of 18 percent under the previously proposed rules).43 This is morally unacceptable. Any destruction of this sector is morally unacceptable.
And the assault on career colleges is not over. As Senator Harkin said after the “final rules” were announced, this is “a modest and important first step.” We should take Harkin at his word.
We who recognize the moral rights of businessmen, stockholders, teachers, and students to produce and trade values according to their own judgment—we who recognize the moral rectitude of private-sector colleges that prepare students for success in the marketplace and happiness in life—we must speak up in defense of these moral rights and these noble schools, and we must condemn any and all further assaults on them.
Yes, some individuals and businesses in the career-college sector engage in fraud, false advertising, breach of contract, and the like—just as some individuals and businesses in every sector of the marketplace do. The solution to this problem, however, is not to cripple or kill the sector; rather, the solution is to identify the specific individuals and businesses engaged in such rights violations and prosecute them.
I urge you to write your elected officials and tell them you are appalled at the patent evil of this concerted assault against private-sector colleges and universities. Demand that the government get to the bottom of the clearly corrupt GAO “investigation” and fraudulent reports that are severely damaging these businesses. Demand that the government investigate the apparent collusion between the DoE and the unscrupulous short-sellers. And demand that the government hold hearings on the unjust nature of the DoE’s “final” gainful employment rules—which, although not as evil as they could have been, are still plainly immoral.
The injustice here pertains not only to those directly involved with the career-college sector, but to every American who seeks education, works for a living, or cares about his future or the future of his loved ones. If government officials and bureaucrats are permitted to get away with what they have done to career colleges, what is to stop them when they use the same government power and creative tactics to assault other sectors of the economy?
Acknowledgment: I wish to thank Alan Germani for his helpful comments on an earlier draft of this article.
1 For example, “In California, with a budget cut of 8 percent across the board, the community colleges turned away 140,000 students last year [i.e., 2009]. In Colorado, the waiting lists for nursing programs at some of the state’s community colleges have grown to as long as 3.5 years. In May, New York’s community colleges stopped accepting applications for the fall semester and added students instead to a waiting list.” Peter Whoriskey, “Community Colleges Are Getting an Education in Tough Economics,” Washington Post, November 27, 2010, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/26/AR2010112605035.html. And: “California’s Community Colleges Will Enroll 400,000 Fewer Students Next Fall and Slash Thousands of Classes to Contend with Budget Shortfalls”; Carla Rivera, “California Community Colleges to Slash Enrollment, Classes,” Los Angeles Times, March 31, 2011. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0331-community-colleges-20110331,0,7036490.story.
2 Kara M. Cheseby, “Class Conflict: Gainful Employment Proposal Penalizes At-Risk Student Populations and Hurts the Economy,” Competitive Enterprise Institute, March 2011, http://cei.org/sites/default/files/Kara%20Cheseby%20-%20Class%20Conflict%20Gainful%20Employment%20Proposal.pdf.
3 Jean Marie Falk, “‘Gainful Employment’ Rule Would Punish Students,” http://savestudentchoice.org/blogs/gainful-employment-rule-would-punish-students.
4 Obviously career colleges do not enjoy a fully free market; the government improperly and coercively imposes itself on this sector, as it does to varying degrees on all sectors of the economy today. The government also uses taxpayer money to indirectly fund this sector, as it does to fund the sectors of medicine, insurance, investing, and so on. But the government’s coercion is not what makes career colleges a value. What makes them a value are the educational services they voluntarily produce and trade with those who seek to improve their lives.
5 Matthew Denhart, “Federal Overreach into American Higher Education,” Heritage Foundation, November 4, 2010, http://thf_media.s3.amazonaws.com/2010/pdf/bg2486.pdf.
8 Coalition for Educational Success press release, May 3, 2011, http://www.ed-success.org/press-release-coalition-statement-on-gainful-employment-regulation-delivery-to-omb.php.
9 See “Proposed Rule Links Federal Student Aid to Loan Repayment Rates and Debt-to-Earnings Levels for Career College Graduates,” July 23, 2010, http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/proposed-rule-links-federal-student-aid-loan-repayment-rates-and-debt-earnings.
10 See Daniel de Vise, “House Approves Huge Changes to Student Loan Program,” Washington Post, March 22, 2010, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/21/AR2010032103548.html.
11 If taxpayers disapprove of the government issuing grants and loans to college students (and they should), then taxpayers should demand that the government get out of the student grant and loan business. But so long as the government does issue student grants and loans, there is no moral justification for forcing taxpayers to support students attending traditional or community colleges but not those attending career colleges. Insofar as the government continues to offer student grants and loans, it morally must permit students to use the funds at schools of the students’ choice.
12 “Higher Education at a Crossroads,” Apollo Group, Inc., August 2010, http://www.apollogrp.edu/Investor/Reports/Higher_Education_at_a_Crossroads_FINALv2%5B1%5D.pdf.
13 “Higher Education at a Crossroads,” Apollo Group.
14 “Background Questions and Answers,” Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities, http://www.career.org/iMISPublic/AM/Template.cfm?Section=About_Career_Education&Template=/CM/HTMLDisplay.cfm&ContentID=23196.
15 “Proprietary Schools: Stronger Department of Education Oversight Needed to Help Ensure Only Eligible Students Receive Federal Student Aid,” U.S. Government Accountability Office, August 17, 2009, http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d09600.pdf.
16 Background Questions and Answers,” APSCU.
17 “Higher Education at a Crossroads,” Apollo Group.
18 Cheseby, “Class Conflict,” (emphasis added).
20; Mark Hyman, “Assault on Career Colleges,” American Spectator, October 6, 2010, http://spectator.org/archives/2010/10/06/assault-on-career-colleges#.
21 Coalition for Educational Success v. United States of America, lawsuit filed February 2, 2011, http://ed-success.org/pdf/CES_GAO_Complaint.pdf.
22 Coalition v. United States of America.
23 Coalition v. United States of America.
24 Coalition v. United States of America.
25 Coalition v. United States of America.
26 See “Timeline of the ‘Gainful Employment’ Rule,” Coalition for Educational Success, http://www.ed-success.org/timeline.php.
27 “U.S. Senator Lashes Out at For-Profit Education,” Reuters, August 4, 2010, http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0421762120100804.
28 Coalition v. United States of America.
29 Although insider trading should not be illegal unless it involves fraud, breach of contract, or the like, insider trading that involves the government providing short-sellers with advance notice of regulations that will cripple a particular industry is patently immoral and properly illegal. This case appears beyond any reasonable doubt to be a conspiracy to use government regulations to thwart a market and line the pockets of short-sellers who helped craft the regulations, substantially dictated their content, and were provided by government agents with advance notice of their timing.
30 Letter available at http://www.intered.com/storage/deptofed/CREW_RobertKhuzamiSECLetter2-9-11.pdf.
31 Coalition for Educational Success press release, March 24, 2011, http://www.ed-success.org/FOIA-release.php.
32 PDF of slide available at http://www.ed-success.org/pdf/3.pdf.
33 PDF of email available at http://www.ed-success.org/pdf/5.pdf.
34 PDF of email available at http://www.ed-success.org/pdf/5.pdf.
35 PDF of email available at http://www.ed-success.org/pdf/7.pdf.
36 PDF of email available at http://www.ed-success.org/pdf/8.pdf.
38 Email available at http://www.ed-success.org/pdf/12.pdf.
39 Coalition for Educational Success press release, May 9, 2011, http://www.ed-success.org/press-release-coalition-urges-sec-to-investigate-possible-insider-trading-by-short-sellers-who-obtained-material-non-public-information-from-us-department-of-education-officials-in-violation-of-department-ethics-rules.php.
40 Coalition for Educational Success press release, March 24, 2011, http://www.ed-success.org/FOIA-release.php.
41 Coalition for Educational Success press release, May 9, 2011, http://www.ed-success.org/press-release-coalition-urges-sec-to-investigate-possible-insider-trading-by-short-sellers-who-obtained-material-non-public-information-from-us-department-of-education-officials-in-violation-of-department-ethics-rules.php.
42 Jonathan Strong, “Coburn: Education Department ‘Tipping Hedge Funds’ on For-Profit Colleges,” Daily Caller, March 3, 2011, http://dailycaller.com/2011/03/03/coburn-education-department-tipping-hedge-funds-on-for-profit-colleges/.
43 Mark Kantrowitz, “Summary and Analysis of Gainful Employment Final Rule,” June 2, 2011, http://www.intered.com/storage/deptofed/Kantrowitz_20110602gainfulemployment.pdf.

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