TPA Releases New Brief on Higher Education Reform

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Kara Zupkus (224)-456-0257

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) released a new issue brief on the problems facing the American higher education system. The report’s release comes as the Department of Education’s Accountability in Higher Education and Access through Demand-driven Workforce Pell (AHEAD) Committee meets to contemplate changes to policies such as the “Financial Value Transparency and Gainful Employment” rule. This regulation, which primarily targets private higher education institutions while ignoring non-profit schools, has resulted in a confusing system of federal favoritism. The report highlights this issue and proposes eliminating the rule. 

Below are key quotes from the report:

• “Federal efforts to tie taxpayer dollars to students’ post-graduate performance have not been applied consistently nor even-handedly.”
• “The federal government can control costs and save taxpayer dollars by ending ‘Gainful Employment’ regulations and applying ‘do no harm’–style standards across the board, rather than simply focusing on a narrow subset of the higher education sector.”
• “Despite … broader problems impacting an array of programs, including traditional bachelor’s degrees, the Biden-era Department of Education declined to explain why it did not apply its rule to nonprofit institutions.”
• “According to a 2024 analysis by The Burning Glass Institute, 52 percent of graduates with only a bachelor’s degree face underemployment a year following their graduation; they are largely employed in jobs for which they are overqualified.”
• “If present trends continue, there will soon be one administrator for every five students. These trends are not only driven by tuition growth spurred in turn by federally backed student aid, but also the growing multitude of federal regulations affecting higher education.”

View the full report below: