Durbin Introduces Legislation To Protect Students And Taxpayers From Predatory Higher Education Practices

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) today introduced thePreventing Risky Operations from Threatening the Education and Career Trajectories of Students Act,also known as thePROTECT Students Act.The bill will help safeguard students, including service members and veterans, and taxpayers from predatory and anti-student higher education practices and ensure that higher education meets the needs of hard-working students.  ThePROTECT Students Actrepresents common-sense consumer protections for students and holds predatory institutions, including for-profit schools, accountable when they engage in unfair, deceptive, and other fraudulent practices.
The Department of Education’s recent mass layoffs especially targeted staff that work on higher education enforcement within the Federal Student Aid Office.  The Trump Administration and Education Secretary McMahon have stated that these layoffs are to reduce duplicative roles, but in reality, they gut professionals responsible for safeguarding transparency and accountability over the predatory for-profit college industry—an industry that has abused students and taxpayer dollars for far too long.
U.S. Representative Mark Takano (D-CA-39) will introduce companion legislation in the House later this month. U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) are also cosponsors of the legislation.
“Time and time again, for-profit colleges have scammed students into taking on mountains of student debt without offering a viable degree or career path—and sometimes have even shuttered their doors while a student is enrolled.  Our students deserve to be protected from the predatory tactics of these for-profit schools,”Durbin said.“The first Trump Administration let for-profit colleges off the hook by rolling back protections like the Gainful Employment Rule and stopping the review of borrower defense claims.  I am introducing thePROTECT Students Actto stand up for students when the Trump Administration won’t by ensuring that for-profit schools are held accountable for taking advantage of students.”
“Fraudsters are feeling empowered by this Administration, and the American people are looking for their government to do something,”said Takano.“Students who are hoping to better themselves through a college education deserve protections in law to ensure that the school they choose upholds their promise of high-quality education and a degree.  Students deserve to have the backing of laws to take on for-profit colleges, discredited universities, and loan providers who deceive them.”
The for-profit college industry has a long record of precipitous closures and predatory practices, including misrepresenting costs, transferability of credits, and job opportunities.  For-profit colleges also historically have targeted service members, veterans, students of color, low-income students, and immigrant students.  For-profit colleges enroll only eight percent of all postsecondary students but account for30 percent of all federal student loan defaults.  Despite their poor track record, they received more than $16 billion in federal student aid in the 2023-2024 school year.
Now more than ever, protections are needed to ensure that students are treated fairly and that taxpayer investments in higher education are protected from high-risk, for-profit programs and schools.  ThePROTECT Students Acttakes common-sense steps to prevent abusive practices and safeguard taxpayer dollars.
Specifically, thePROTECT Students Actwould:
ThePROTECT Students Actis endorsed by the Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS), the Century Foundation, American Federation of Teachers (AFT), National Consumer Law Center, Project on Predatory Student Lending PPSL), Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC), National Education Association (NEA), New America, National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), Center for American Progress, EdTrust, and Young Invincibles.
“At a time when the Trump administration is attacking higher education to line the pockets of billionaires, thePROTECT Students Acthelps us fight against fraud and fight for the colleges and universities that students deserve.  Predatory, fly-by-night colleges put profits over people, duping those who just want to improve their lives into spending and borrowing huge amounts of cash fora low-quality education with limited job prospects.  ThePROTECT Students Actwould codify existing protections for students and create accountability, not a free pass for rogue colleges—and it has our full and unequivocal support,”said Randi Weingarten, President, American Federation of Teachers.
“Every student loan borrower who has been duped by a predatory school and is saddled with federal student loan debt understands that we must reform the federal student loan system.  ThePROTECT Students Actincreases school accountability while strengthening the relief programs intended to help student loan borrowers who are harmed by bad actors,”said Kyra Taylor, Staff Attorney, National Consumer Law Center.
“For-profit colleges frequently target low-income students, Black and Latino students, and veterans when marketing high-cost, low-quality college programs that leave graduates with few job prospects and mountains of debt.  ThePROTECT Student Actwould protect students – and taxpayers – from investing in such programs.  This bill is a critical step forward in ensuring that the nation’s higher education system works for all students,”said Carolyn Fast, Director of Higher Education Policy and Senior Fellow, The Century Foundation.
“ThePROTECT Students Actrepresents a comprehensive effort to place in statute critical student and taxpayer protections, and we thank Senator Durbin and Representative Takano for their leadership. Amid ongoing legislative and executive threats to such protections, thePROTECT Students Actrepresents a counterweight to efforts that would leave students—especially Black and Latino students, low-income students, and student veterans—more vulnerable to predatory actors and taxpayer-funded financial aid programs more at risk of waste, fraud, and abuse by high-cost, low-quality programs,”said Sameer Gadkaree, President, The Institute for College Access & Success.
“Higher education should be an opportunity, not a financial trap.  For far too long, waste, fraud and abuse have run rampant at scam schools, leaving borrowers holding the bag while predatory companies pocket billions of taxpayer dollars.  This bill is a bold and necessary step to close loopholes, enforce accountability, and ensure that higher education truly serves students, not corporate interests.  By strengthening and reinforcing commonsense protections like borrower defense and gainful employment, this legislation puts students and taxpayers first,”said Ashley Harrington, Senior Director of Policy and Advocacy, Project on Predatory Student Lending
A one-pager on the bill is availablehereand a section-by-section is availablehere.
-30-