Education Dept. Will Use Lengthy Process to Restore Student-Debt Accountability

The gainful-employment regulation, which seeks to hold colleges accountable for their students’ earnings compared with their students’ loan debt, will go through the federal rule-making process, again, more than a decade after it was first proposed.

Under President Donald J. Trump, the education secretary, Betsy DeVos, repealed the regulation — one of several accountability measures that were undone during her tenure.

Advocates had urged the Biden administration to simply reverse DeVos’s repeal, according to a report from the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators and Politico, but the administration has said it is legally obligated to go through the lengthy rule-making process. A new rule could not go into effect until July 2022 at the earliest.

The rule, rolled out by the Education Department under President Barack Obama, was heavily opposed by for-profit colleges and community colleges because it targeted career-preparation programs. The credentials offered by such programs, the Obama administration argued, left graduates with higher debts and lower-paying jobs. After lawsuits and some revisions, it was finalized in 2014.