February 14, 2023

Wyden, Colleagues Urge Education Department to Inform Potential Students of Low-Financial-Value Postsecondary Programs

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Ron Wyden today announced that he has joined Senate colleagues in asking the Education Department to provide input about the agency's process for compiling a list of low-financial-value postsecondary programs. This list would serve as a warning sign for students, parents, and educators about the certain higher education programs that do not produce a financial return on investment for attendees, especially as college costs and student loan debts are rising. 

“As the Department rightfully points out, there are postsecondary programs that saddle students with unaffordable debt and provide low financial returns. While we recognize a postsecondary education also provides many non-financial benefits, we share the Department’s concern about the impact that low-financial-value programs have on students and taxpayers,” Wyden and colleagues wrote in a letter to Education Department Under Secretary, James Kvaal.

“We believe it is critical for students, families, and student support professionals like school counselors to have easy access to information indicating which institutions set high tuition rates, enroll students in low-quality programs with little payoff, and capture large amounts of federal student aid while failing to produce student outcomes,” the senators continued.

In their letter, Wyden and colleagues recommended that the Education Department employ a debt-to-earnings metric, a ratio comparing how much a borrower owes each month to how much the borrower earns, to determine whether an education program is a worthy investment. The senators also urged the Education Department to account for historical underfunding at certain institutions, including minority serving institutions.

Additionally, Wyden and colleagues urged the Education Department to continue its oversight and enforcement responsibilities to identify and hold accountable programs, especially those at for-profit colleges that have harmed students in the past by providing a low-quality education or saddling students with insurmountable debt with little return. The Senators specifically called on the Education Department to reinstate the gainful employment rule and crack down on online program management companies (OPMs) that rake in tuition revenue from programs they operate on behalf of colleges. 

The senators concluded their letter by recommending that the Education Department hold institutions accountable if they are found to have low-financial-value and do not deliver on their improvement plans.

The letter was led by U.S. Senators Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Tina Smith, D-Minn. Alongside Wyden, the letter was joined by U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Chris Van Hollen, D- Md.

The text of the letter is here.