Yesterday, my opinion piece was published in the Des Moines Register. The piece argues that Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) must focus on higher education reform as whole, not just within the private sector higher education industry. See below for an excerpt:

The single most important predictor of employment is education. Americans with less than a high school diploma are four times more likely to be affected by long-time joblessness than a college graduate.

Iowa is known for its excellent chiropractic college. I do not believe Harkin would attempt to put them out of business because they are different from the Carver College of Medicine at the University of Iowa. Yet that is exactly the effect of what he is doing to proprietary colleges and universities by promoting the gainful employment rule as the solution to loan defaults, graduation rates and other perceived shortcomings of higher education.

Instead of introducing legislation and imposing regulations to restrict higher education, we need our senators to stop the crusade against for-profit education and look across the national landscape to find ways to increase graduation rates and encourage education opportunities for our nontraditional students.

Click here to view the full piece.