Date: 2011-02-17
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Chairman. in my district. after it invented the Internet. it turned it over to the private sector to grow it. Mr. Chairman. Members of the House. this amendment should not be adopted. It should not be adopted because this amendment is designed to disrupt the regulatory process to determine whether or not students who are enrolled in someand I say "some". I say this as a supporter of proprietary colleges and career collegessome classes that only leave them in debt. dont leave them better prepared for the workforce. dont leave them better prepared for the career. There is substantial evidence that thats the case. High default rates. students not completing. students ending up in a lot of debt. They are doing this with almost 90 percent of taxpayer dollars. I think we have an obligation to the students and to the taxpayers. Thats what the administration is trying to do with this regulation. Its been mentioned that there were 90.000 comments. 89.000 of them were a form letter. You would have thought that they could have varied them a little bit for the money they were paying to get it out. but they didnt. But the point is this: The administration ought to be allowed to complete this process because this really is about the future of these students. Students from these schools in many instances graduate with much higher debt. Some of these schools. they default. In excess of 40. 45 percent of them end up in default. and. as you know. that is not debt that you can discharge in a bankruptcy. So these students start out in big trouble if these schools are not providing the kind of educational atmosphere and. hopefully. the success ratio that they should. That should be a concern to every Member of this Congress. That should be a concern to the taxpayers. and it is a concern to this administration. If this regulation doesnt turn out. the Congress can tell them they cant do it. Thats our power. Thats the way it works. But to come in in the middle of the game when its this serious with this money on the table. with these kinds of default rates. and some of these institutions and some of these classes. were making a big mistake by putting our thumb on one side of the scale at this point in the process. As Ive said from the time I have been on this committee as these schools started to grow and become more a part of our higher education. I have supported them. I continue to support them. Somebody just said. if youre going to meet the goal of college graduation. its hard to believe how youre going to do it without these schools. But as we all know. you put 90 cents out of every dollar coming from the taxpayer on the street. theres always a few people who show up to pick it up without providing the services. We went through this in the HMOs back in the nineties. There were people who said they were becoming health care HMOs. No. they were really real estate companies who were trying to get a lot of people to enroll and hopefully they could sell them to somebody else. In this one. its a question of whether or not youre offering a curriculum that truly benefits the students. gives them the opportunity. But. you know. when we see the kinds of scandals that have erupted in the past at some of these institutionsagain. not all of themyou have to ask the questions: Whats going on? People have paid tens of millions of dollars in fines because of how they have attracted students. When you have a business plan thats based upon attracting homeless people. you better make sure that there is some opportunity for that homeless person to thrive in that educational class other than just end up in debt and still homeless. That was a business plan. So Im just asking for caution. I know you want to run to justice. I know the power of these institutions and I know the pressure that youre saying you have to stop this. you have to stop this. Were talking about a few classes within all of these institutions where there is a history. there may very well be a history that all the student got out of it was debt. This isnt about what you end up doing in your career over time. but its about whether or not you got what you paid for and they delivered services that they promised. I hope that Congress will reject this amendment. Let the Department continue to work on the regulation. and again. if it doesnt work. if it doesnt make sense and is threatening schools. I suspect that we will all join in making sure that the regulation doesnt go into effect. I yield back the balance of my time.