WASHINGTON—Following the Department of Education’s release of the controversial final ‘Gainful Employment’ rule, the Hispanic Leadership Fund condemned the content of the rule and its harmful impact on students, including many Latinos, and the tainted process by which the Administration is forcing it through.  Hispanic Leadership Fund President Mario H. Lopez issued the following statement:

“The Department of Education has defied a bipartisan majority in the House of Representatives, which overwhelmingly passed an amendment defunding the implementation of this harmful regulation.  The administration has ignored the objections of 90,000 individuals who submitted comments against the rule and relied on a biased and proven to be inaccurate GAO report.  As if that were not enough, alarming journalistic reports show that Wall Street short-sellers had undue influence on the entire process raise serious ethical and legal issues.

“Since the rulemaking process began, we have voiced concern about how this government overreach would affect minority and low-income students—who make up the majority of students attending career colleges and universities.  The pursuit of a harmful political agenda is clearly more important than supporting quality educational opportunities.

“Now, the Hispanic Leadership Fund calls on the U.S. Congress to take action to ensure that minority and low-income students can continue to receive a high quality education at the institution of their choosing. We ask Congress to take the first step forward to ensure that students can continue to have opportunities to gain the skills they need to start successful careers.”