NDC’s Carey Writes Chairwoman Foxx Over Holding Dept. of Education Accountable

November 29, 2023

Dear Chair Foxx,

Your leadership in holding the Biden administration’s Department of Education accountable through your Committee’s oversight, especially with regards to military and veteran students and their earned educational benefits, is deeply appreciated, and for it we wish to commend you and the Committee. Now, with the Department’s recent efforts on Rules regarding Gainful Employment and Financial Transparency requirements, your and the Committee’s efforts are especially needed to thwart this Administration’s incomprehensible crusade against non-traditional and propriety institutions of higher education, the very ones chosen – for a rational reason – by so many veterans, military personnel, and their families.

We applaud your commitment to oversight and urge you to keep up the pressure to push back against these ill-conceived ideological and unnecessary protectionist measures by the Department of Education against the ability of these military personnel and veterans to used their earned educational benefits as they best see fit.

The current bureaucrats leading the Department of Education have proven themselves to be politically enabled educational puritans dedicated to protecting traditional public and private non-profit universities government guaranteed market dominance, ideologues intent on infantilizing military personnel and veterans because these bureaucrats deem these military personal and veterans incapable of making rational educational choices, and ignorant of the rule of law, especially regulatory law and constitutional protections against government “takings”. The regulatory actions taken by the Department of Education to further these political crusades (which are also of questionable legislative or legal authority) will ultimately result in limiting, not expanding educational opportunities for military and veteran students, which are opposite to what is needed.

While we’ve watched the Department proceed with numerous unconstitutional student loan forgiveness schemes, efforts to shut down “politically unsavory” colleges, and limit options for students to access schools that they want to attend, continue with all due haste.

As you yourself have noted in the past about veterans education options, “Society flourishes when its members can develop in an environment that works best for their unique needs and strengths. Forcing students into a one-size-fits-all learning environment and limiting the educational opportunities of those who have sacrificed for our country is wrong.”

That is why we are so concerned about recent actions by the Department that are counter to your words and your Committee’s guidance. For example, just in recent weeks, the Department of Education issued the biggest fine ever to the largest university in America and took the unusual step of hiring a third-party monitor of this university’s activities. In response, the university noted the Department of Education is engaged in “coordinated and unjust actions” with the

Department of Veterans Affairs and the Federal Trade Commission, which are being pushed for “political or ideological reasons.”

In addition to enforcement actions, the Department of Education’s vendetta against career colleges and their students is evident in recent rulemakings. The Department’s recently finalized Gainful Employment Rule followed the exact same path as the Department of Veterans Affairs follows it comes to regulations on veterans earned benefits like educational benefits: decide what it wants to do, pay lip-service to the public comments on that regulation (no matter how much opposition there is), and then go through the motions of responding to those negative comments to meet the bare minimum of the legal standards necessary to dismiss that opposition and produce the regulation it originally wanted. Department of Education believes this rule will “protect” more than 700,000 students – many of which are veterans. These students will need to enter different schools, which will increase the competition to attend four-year degrees, ultimately raising the cost of attendance.

Worse, the Education Department completely ignored the comments brought by thousands of concerned citizens during the public comment period.

As detailed in a recent white paper by the National Defense Committee, traditional public and private non-profit universities are in a death spiral of dropping enrollment. Veterans pick career colleges because of the ease and usefulness to their busy personal and professional lifestyles, an accepting student body, educational programs focused on real-world job skills, and a relatively positive value, especially for military and veteran students.

The ongoing war against career colleges and other higher education institutions is not about
protecting m military and veterans’ educational benefits, but about protecting traditional colleges’ historical market position, by bringing big government in between veterans and the ability to make education decisions for themselves.

The National Defense Committee urge you to continue your critical oversight efforts, hold this administration accountable, and most importantly, protect the interests of veteran and military students seeking educational opportunities.

Very respectfully,

Bob “Shoebob” Carey
CAPT, USN (Ret)
Chief Bottle Washer