WASHINGTON — Education Secretary Arne Duncan proposed Thursday that forprofit colleges be required to show through certain new measures that their graduates are not saddled with too much debt, an initiative he said was meant to protect students from “a few bad actors” in the industry.
The for-profit sector enrolled 1.8 million students in 2008, more than triple the number of a decade earlier.
Starting in the 2012-13 academic year, for-profit colleges would have to demonstrate that they prepare students for “gainful employment” in order to remain eligible for federal aid.
They could do this in two ways. One would be to show that at least 45 percent of former students are paying down the principal on their federal loans.
The other would be to show that graduates are paying no more than one-fifth of their discretionary income, or 8 percent of total income, toward student debt.
Front Section, Pages 4 on 07/23/2010