National Student Loan Data System - 1491 Words

The Obama administration has successfully created and passed a new law that will unfairly enforce more regulations on post secondary schools. This new law, called Program Integrity: Gainful Employment (GE) was established when concerns were raised about the amount owed on student loan debt. This single ruling will permanently close several hundred programs and lower the options of educational choices for non-traditional students. The American taxpayer dollar is funding the education of low income students in the form of Federal Pell Grants and Federal Direct Student Loans. The federal government has the responsibility of funding those student loans. The Department of Education (DOE) is responsible for the rules applied to student loans.†¦show more content†¦According to the final ruling on October 31, 2014, the DOE will target post secondary schools with a mandate that the schools must show that their graduate students are gainfully employed with an income that will allow st udent loan debt repayment (â€Å"Program†). Taken as a median income of all graduates, these sole figures will close an institution when federal funding is lost because the metrics set by the Obama administration are not met. Lobbyists have successfully blocked parts the new regulations in federal court. According to their second suit filed in November 2014 against Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities feel that this regulation is unacceptable and in violation of federal law (â€Å"APSCU†). The lawsuit also suggests that millions of students will have a limited number of programs to choose from because so many schools will close permanently. The DOE conceded in the first suit that no single test is a perfect solution of determining if a school is passing the GE rule (Program). Originally, there were three metric tests; now there is only one that has two parts. This single test will take the annual wage information from the Social Security Administration and compare those wages against the student’s loan debt. To pass the metric guidelines, the GE rule explains that a student must have a debt to earnings ratio (d/e) less than