Trump protection secretary decide a for-profit school advocate

Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for protection secretary, has been a vocal advocate for for-profit faculties, pushing again on rules on the sector.

Hegseth emerged as a powerful supporter of for-profit faculties in the course of the first Trump administration. Talking at a Profession Schooling Schools and Universities occasion in 2019, Hegseth promised the lobbying group that he would push Trump to battle laws to shut a loophole within the 90-10 rule, which says that not more than 90 p.c of a for-profit establishment’s income can come from federal assist. The loophole, which was closed in 2022, held that veterans’ advantages—together with GI Invoice stipends—didn’t rely as federal assist, permitting for-profit faculties to enroll extra college students utilizing federal loans, ProPublica reported.

“The truth that revenue is made solely makes these colleges higher,” Hegseth stated in a 2019 speech.

Past the a number of speeches Hegseth delivered for CECU and associated organizations, he additionally wrote opinion items for Fox Information and The Hill, arguing that “left-wing extremists” had miscast proprietary establishments as “predatory for-profit faculties” and that the Democratic Occasion and “many veteran teams now primarily assist a leftist, anti-choice greater schooling agenda.”

Whereas it’s unclear what Hegseth’s assist for the sector would imply if he’s confirmed to the DOD position, many within the for-profit school world count on a second Trump administration to roll again Biden-era insurance policies that focused proprietary establishments, probably ushering in a much less stringent regulatory atmosphere.

President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Hegseth, a Fox Information host, got here as a shock to many. Whereas a vocal Trump supporter and veteran, Hegseth doesn’t have the kind of expertise that previous leaders of the Division of Protection have had, his critics have famous.