The Protecting Students from Worthless Degrees Act

Senators Merkley, Mikulski and Harkin

Since the first GI Bill in 1944, federal educational financial aid programs, including student loans and Pell grants, have given generations of Americans the opportunity to pursue an education beyond high school and obtain the skills and training needed to succeed in the economy. Such aid has empowered millions of Americans who otherwise would not have been able to afford a postsecondary education and has helped build our nations middle class. However, with the rise of for-profit and non-accredited programs, serious concerns are being raised about the educational value that students are getting for their hard-earned benefits and financial aid. Several reports and media stories have identified instances where schools are offering high-cost yet worthless degrees to students, undermining the integrity of our federal financial aid programs. As a result, legislative action is urgently needed to ensure that such programs are not funding low-quality programs that do not lead to successful outcomes and career opportunities for students and safeguard Americas federal investment in higher education. The problem is that the laws that govern our federal financial aid programs provide opportunities for abuse by predatory schools that overpromise and under-deliver through insufficient protections and loopholes. Currently, schools are eligible for three major federal financial aid programs totaling more than $160 billion even if they lack state licensing or programmatic accreditation for specific programs they offer (Title IV under the Department of Education, GI Bill under the Department of Veterans Affairs, and Tuition Assistance under the Department of Defense). While institutions as a whole must be accredited by an accrediting agency recognized by the Department of Education, there are no such accreditation or licensure requirements for specific programs, even when such requirements are a prerequisite for students to enter the occupation for which the program prepares them. In other words, accredited institutions can offer education and training in programs of study whose graduates cannot get a job in the respective occupation and practice what they learned: In North Carolina, a group of students enrolled in a dental assistant program at Kaplan College were told that the program would prepare them to get Dental Assistant II positions, which have a higher salary and better prospects than entry-level dental assistants. However, the one-year $18,000 program lacked the necessary accreditation from the Commission on Dental Accreditation and as a result graduates were ineligible to become Dental Assistant II employees. The students later discovered it would take them an additional 3,000 hours or two years working in a dentists office to qualify for such jobs. Yasmine Issa, a single mother who completed an ultrasound technician program at Sanford-Brown Institute in New York, at a cost of more than $30,000, found she was unable to sit for the required certification exam because the program was not accredited by the appropriate commission. In Illinois, a young mother enrolled in the Illinois School of Health Careers to get the required training to become a certified nursing assistant (CNA). Just before the completion of her eight-month program and after borrowing $8,500 in federal student loans, she learned the program was not recognized by the Illinois Department of Health and, as result, she could not sit for the CNA exam.

The Protecting Students from Worthless Degrees Act will address this problem by making programmatic accreditation or state licensure a requirement for programs of study when such licensure or accreditation is needed for students to do the job they were prepared for by these programs. Specifically, the bill requires that programs offered by degree-granting institutions will be eligible for federal education dollars only if their graduates fully qualify to take any examination, be certified or licensed, or meet any other academically-related preconditions that are required for entry into the job market for which the degree is supposed to prepare them. For pre-accredited programs, the bill requires institutions to inform students about the lack of full accreditation and about the effects on their financial aid if such accreditation is delayed or denied. In these tight fiscal times, we must ensure that our tax dollars are not paying for high-cost, low-quality degrees that do not lead to career opportunities for students. Please join us in cosponsoring this critical legislation to protect students from wasting their time and money. The legislation is supported by Campus Progress, Education Trust, The Institute for College Access and Success, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, National Association for College Admission Counseling, Military Officers Association of America, National Consumer Law Center (on behalf of its low-income clients), Student Veterans of America, Vietnam Veterans of America, US PIRG and Young Invincibles.