U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill is continuing her efforts to fix the so-called “90/10” rule by closing a loophole allowing for-profit colleges to count educational benefits for servicemembers and veterans outside the 90 percent cap on federal financial aid, causing some schools to aggressively recruit servicemembers and veterans and profit from benefits owed to them.
“Preying on veterans and military students to pad the pockets of for-profit colleges is wrong, and it’s disgraceful,” said McCaskill, a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the daughter of a World War II veteran. “We owe it to the folks who served our country and rely on these education benefits to close this loophole and ensure that institutions are doing their part when it comes to educating military personnel, veterans, and their families.”
The 90/10 rule mandates that at least 10 percent of revenue at for-profit colleges and universities comes from non-federal dollars. The rule is intended to ensure the federal government is not the only one financially supporting for-profit colleges and universities as well as ensure there is private demand for a for-profit college education. However, a loophole allows for-profit colleges to count funding from servicemembers and veterans who have access to additional federal educational assistance as part of their 10 percent mandate, despite the fact that those benefits come from federal taxpayer dollars.
In fiscal year 2016, there were more than 16,000 Missourians who received education benefits that exist for military personnel and veterans.
McCaskill has long supported permanently closing the 90/10 loophole to require for-profit institutions of higher education to generate more than 10 percent of revenue from sources other than Title IV and/or federal education assistance programs that exist for military and veteran students. Last year, McCaskill called on the Secretary of Education to strengthen the rule to better protect military and veteran students.
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