Trump Defends Obama's For-Profit College Crackdown
For-profit college investors bid up stock prices in anticipation of a lenient Trump administration. Were they wrong?
Students walk through a hallway at LaGuardia Community College in New York on Dec. 23, 2010.
Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
For-profit colleges were supposed to thrive under a Trump administration staffed by officials known to be friendly to the industry. President Donald Trump and Republican allies in Congress had made broad promises either to revisit or to repeal federal rules governing the schools. That gave hope to for-profit colleges and their investors, driving up their stock prices. Meanwhile, consumer protection advocates worried about a resurgent for-profit college sector unburdened by Obama-era rules.
A legal filing from last week suggests perhaps those assumptions were premature.