Student loans could be hurt by for-profit college regulations

For-profit schools could see new regulations while student loans could be limited by degree plan.

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By Christopher Magan, Staff Writer Updated 10:16 AM Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Proposed state and federal rules and legislation aimed at reining in for-profit colleges could transform the way the schools do business and the rights of students who attend them.

“What I have found is a lack of transparency, overzealous recruiters, false hopes and promises. They are not informing kids,” said Rep. Clayton Luckie, D-Dayton, who has drafted new state legislation requiring better oversight after his office received more than 200 complaints about for-profit schools.

There are more than a dozen for-profit schools in the Dayton region teaching everything from cosmetology to nursing.

Days after Luckie announced his bill, the U.S. Department of Education released a proposed new rule that would tie what a student can borrow in federally guaranteed student loans to what that same student can expect to earn after graduation.

“While our career colleges play a vital role in training our work force to be globally competitive, some of them are saddling students with debt they cannot afford in exchange for degrees and certificates they cannot use,” Arne Duncan, U.S. Education Secretary, said in a news release.

For-profit schools argue the new rules will harm their students, who typically are older working people looking to better their lives.

“In the end, it is going to hurt students,” said R. David Rankin, executive director of the Ohio Association of Career Colleges and Schools.

For-profit schools are open to new regulations that aid students, Rankin said, but they want a level playing field. “If it is going to be for our schools, make it applicable to the nonprofit and state schools,” he said. “I don’t think too many people would fight that.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2342 or cmagan@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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