Dept. Ed. Sets Separate Neg-reg Committee on Gainful Employment

After concluding its June 4 negotiated rulemaking hearing in Atlanta, the Department of Education announced it will form a separate negotiated rulemaking committee to establish standards for gainful employment programs.  The Department indicated it would not rule out establishing additional committees to consider other issues covered in recent hearings, as well as debit card and campus-based aid program issues addressed in hearings last year.

The Department announcement, published in the June 12 Federal Register, said the new committee will hold two sessions this fall, on September 9-11 and October 21-23.  Nominations to the committee will be accepted until July 12.

Gainful employment is one of several topics on which the Department invited comments during its four recent hearings.  (See earlier Washington Update story)   At the Washington, DC hearing held May 12, NAICU testified on the need to target gainful employment regulations to areas of high risk.

NAICU also presented testimony urging the Department not to pursue new regulations relating to state authorization as a means to either address distance education issues or regulate the foreign locations of U.S. institutions via the states.  Those concerns were echoed at the San Francisco hearing by Kristen Soares, who testified on behalf of the Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities.

State authorization and gainful employment issues were also addressed at the Minneapolis hearing by C. Todd Jones, representing the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Ohio.  In addition, Jones testified on more general issues related to the processes of the negotiated rulemaking. 

For more information, contact:
Susan Hattan, susan@naicu.edu (state authorization)
Maureen Budetti, maureen@naicu.edu (gainful employment)