Attorney General Becerra Denounces Department of Education’s Revised Gainful Employment Rule

SACRAMENTO — California Attorney General Xavier Becerra today denounced the Trump Administration’s new proposed Gainful Employment Rule, which would weaken existing protections for students. In 2015, the Obama Administration issued the original Gainful Employment Rule, which required that educational programs at for-profit colleges produce graduates who earn enough to pay back the debt incurred from attending the program. The Trump Administration is now proposing a watered-down version of the Rule.

“Under the Trump Administration, it is clear who’s the winner between unscrupulous for-profit schools and students,” said Attorney General Xavier Becerra. “President Trump has taken the practices he employed to prey on students at the discredited Trump University and spread them across the nation with the help of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. We sued to protect the original, substantial Gainful Employment Rule, and we will now do everything in our power to fight this new proposal.”

On October 17, 2017, Attorney General Becerra joined a coalition of 18 Attorneys General in filing a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education for illegally delaying the implementation of the Gainful Employment Rule put in place by the Obama Administration, in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act.