martes, 21 de marzo de 2023
Washington, D.C. – Oregon’s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley teamed up with Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL-08) to introduce the Ley de protección de estudiantes contra títulos sin valor de 2023. This bill would help protect students from predatory for-profit college schemes by ending federal financial aid for unaccredited degree programs.
La legislación cerraría una laguna al impedir que las universidades con fines de lucro reciban dólares de ayuda financiera federal para que los estudiantes asistan o se inscriban en programas de grado no acreditados. Este vacío legal, creado cuando la administración Trump eliminó las reglas anteriores, ha dejado a muchos estudiantes que se gradúan de estos programas profundamente endeudados y sin las habilidades o certificaciones necesarias que les permitirían trabajar en el campo deseado.
“Higher education should be a path to the American Dream, but that dream is shattered if students graduate with worthless degrees and mountains of debt,” dijo el senador Merkley. “American taxpayers shouldn’t be subsidizing predatory programs that claim to provide career preparation, but instead target financially vulnerable students with programs that will leave them with no job prospects. Especially as college costs and student loan debt continue to rise, Congress must step in and stand up to these predatory programs that hurt students more than they help.”
“Unfortunately, too many students are lured in by the false promises of for-profit colleges, believing that they are being trained or educated to do a certain profession. But after being buried in debt, students find that their program does not qualify them to become licensed in their chosen profession,” dijo el senador Durbin. “Our bill protects students from these for-profit college scams by prohibiting federal student aid dollars from going to programs that don’t meet the professional licensure requirements and leave students with mountains of debt and no job prospects.”
“Even as American students spend enormous amounts of time, money, and energy to obtain a college degree, many complete their program only to learn that they lack the prerequisites to start their career,” dijo el congresista Krishnamoorthi. “Our legislation will ensure that taxpayer dollars only go to programs that fulfill their commitments to their students while cutting off funding for higher education institutions that offer inadequate or predatory programs.”
Con el costo de la deuda de préstamos universitarios y estudiantiles en aumento, es más importante que nunca que tanto los estudiantes como los contribuyentes reciban un retorno de su inversión que valga la pena, y que los estudiantes estén protegidos contra prácticas fraudulentas. El Ley de protección de estudiantes contra títulos sin valor ayudaría a garantizar que los estudiantes reciban la educación de calidad y las oportunidades profesionales significativas que se les prometió, un trato justo que los estudiantes merecen.
Esta legislación:
- Garantizar que los estudiantes y los contribuyentes no se queden con los gastos de los programas de grado depredadores y sin valor;
- Require all programs—including distance education programs—to meet any federal or state licensure requirements and programmatic accreditation that is necessary for graduates to enter their intended field;
- Hacer que las instituciones que no cumplan con este requisito crucial de protección al consumidor no sean elegibles para recibir ninguna asistencia financiera federal para estudiantes, incluidas las Becas Pell, préstamos directos, beneficios de GI Bill o fondos de Asistencia de Matrícula del Departamento de Defensa; y
- Deshacer la decisión de la administración Trump de eliminar los requisitos de certificación de la regla de Empleo Remunerado, volviendo a las reglas que aseguran que los programas de educación profesional deben cumplir sus promesas a los estudiantes para recibir fondos de ayuda financiera del Título IV.
El Ley de protección de estudiantes contra títulos sin valor está respaldado por la Federación Estadounidense de Maestros (AFT), el Instituto para el Acceso y el Éxito Universitario (TICAS) y el Centro Nacional de Derecho del Consumidor (en nombre de sus clientes de bajos ingresos).
“Predatory colleges put profit over people, duping students into shelling out huge sums of money for degrees under the false promise that they’ll get a job upon graduation. Yet many students don’t—or can’t—find jobs because the programs offered by these schools don’t enable them to work in their field. Rather than sufficiently investing in their students, these colleges are lining their bank accounts at the expense of hardworking Americans trying to start a career and build a better life. Thankfully, members of Congress are working to stand up for students seeking a better life through education by regulating these programs. The Protecting Students from Worthless Degrees Act would cut off federal funding for unaccredited degree programs that won’t help students find work in the field they studied, and it has our full support,” dijo Randi Weingarten, presidente de la Federación Estadounidense de Maestros (AFT).
“The Protecting Students from Worthless Degrees Act is a straightforward effort to prevent students from enrolling in programs that would leave them ineligible to find employment in their chosen occupational field. The bill also reinforces that states retain the right to enforce their laws to protect students and taxpayers from programs that too often come at a high cost while providing low quality and poor outcomes,” dijo el Dr. Kyle Southern, Vicepresidente Asociado de Calidad de la Educación Superior en el Instituto para el Acceso y el Éxito Universitario (TICAS).
El texto de la factura se puede encontrar aquí.
El resumen de la factura se puede encontrar aquí.
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