For-Profit Colleges Look to ‘Urban Members of Congress’ to Protect Gains Under Trump – By Lauren Camera (US News) / Sept 23 2020
The lobbying strategy by a key industry group targets Black and Hispanic lawmakers whose constituencies, critics say, are among those preyed upon by disreputable for-profit colleges.
THE ORGANIZATION THAT represents the country’s for-profit colleges is attempting to recruit support among “urban members of Congress” as a bulwark against the legislative reversal of policy gains the sector has made during the Trump administration amid fears of widespread Democratic victories in November.
The industry group Career Education Colleges and Universities outlined the strategy in internal documents that were shared with U.S. News. The group’s effort seeks to court Black and Latino House Democrats, whose constituents disproportionately enroll in for-profit schools, to guard against the reimposition of federal protections for students that have been eroded in recent years – an effort career college officials see as key to keeping the sector alive should Republicans lose control of the White House and Senate in the upcoming election.
“There would be a new wave of ideological opponents at the Department of Education seeking to reverse positive changes in policy over the past four years,” Steve Gunderson, president and CEO of the career college group and former Republican member of Congress, wrote to the organization’s 500 members in a letter shared with U.S. News dated Aug. 19. “We need approximately 20 reliable Democrats to join with Republicans in ways that can stop some of the most harmful proposals.”
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