More for-profit colleges would fail 90/10 rule if veterans benefits are included, analysis shows

Career College Central Summary:

Twenty-seven for-profit colleges last year exceeded the cap on the share of their revenue that can come from federal student loans and grants, according to annual data released Friday by the U.S. Department of Education.
The colleges violated the federal threshold known as the “90/10 rule,” which prohibits for-profit colleges from deriving more than 90 percent of their operating revenue from federal student aid money.
Colleges that hit the threshold for two years in a row risk losing their eligibility for such funds.According a Department of Education internal analysis obtained by Inside Higher Ed, far more colleges would fail the 90/10 threshold if the it included veterans’ benefits and Pentagon tuition assistance programs.
The analysis, which was first reported last week by the Center for Investigative Reporting, found that 133 additional colleges in the 2013 data release would have failed to meet that revised standard, as opposed to the 29 that actually did last year.
An additional 292 colleges, the analysis shows, would have come within five percentage points for crossing the 90-percent line.
For-profit colleges have long argued that the requirement is not a meaningful metric and that it cuts off access to students who rely on Education Department loans and grants to attend their institutions.
Further, they argue, adding veterans' benefits to the calculation would cut off access and force the closure of for-profit education programs that enroll large numbers of veterans. Some veterans' groups agree with that argument.
The American Legion, for instance, has pressed members of Congress not to change the 90/10 rule from its current form.

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