Quigley Applauds President's Effort to Protect Military and Veterans Targeted by Deceptive For-Profit Colleges

WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Representative Mike Quigley (IL-05) spoke out in support of President Barack Obama's Executive Order to end deceptive and misleading practices by educational institutions that target veterans, service members, and their families.

"The President's actions today strengthen the promise we make to our service members and veterans to provide access to higher education in return for service to their country," said Rep. Quigley. "The brave men and women who protect us deserve protection from the predatory marketing and recruiting tactics employed by many for-profit colleges, who often care more about using the G.I. Bill to increase their bottom-line than providing a quality education."

The Executive Order released today would do the following:

¢ Help ensure military and veteran students have the information they need by requiring that the Know Before You Owe financial aid form is made available to all students participating in the Department of Defense's (DoD) Tuition Assistance Program.

¢ Require the DoD to set forth rules on how educational institutions gain access to military installations to ensure bad actors are kept off bases.

¢ Register the term "GI Bill, so external websites cannot fraudulently market programs using the term.

¢ Provide students with better data on educational institutions by developing improved student outcome measures to be made available on the Department of Education's College Navigator website.

¢ Improve support services for service members and veterans, including offering educational plans and academic and financial aid counseling.

¢ Create a centralized complaint system for students receiving military and veterans' educational benefits to improve enforcement and regulatory actions against bad actors.

Rep. Quigley has been actively working to protect the education benefits of service members and veterans and introduced the Military and Veterans Education Protection Act earlier this year. This legislation closes a loophole that encourages for-profit colleges to target active duty military and veterans using military education assistance programs.

Rep. Quigley has been committed to good government reform in his two terms in Congress. He sits on the Committee on Oversight and Government reform and previously co-authored an opinion piece on the predatory nature of for-profit colleges. He founded the bipartisan Transparency Caucus and has released Reinventing Government: The Federal Budget Parts I and II, which establishes transparency in the budget process and offers 60 recommendations to save $2 trillion over the next 10 years.