ALBANY, NY- Donna Stelling-Gurnett, President and CEO of The Association of Proprietary Colleges (APC) presented testimony today at the Legislature’s Joint Budget Hearing on Higher Education in which she identified the negative impact and consequences of Governor Cuomo’s “For-Profit College Accountability Act” proposal will have on 26,000 students enrolled in the degree-granting proprietary sector.
In her testimony, she noted that if enacted the proposal would decimate the for-profit sector (both degree granting and non-degree) entirely. She additionally highlighted APC member colleges’ strong academic outcomes such as on-time associate degree graduation rates being higher than other sectors, number of degrees conferred, job placement rates and the lower than average student debt.
Among the most problematic elements of the Cuomo accountability proposal are requiring for profit schools to:
Report their funding sources and demonstrating that they are not receiving more than 80 percent of their tuition revenues from public sources, including need based student financial aid programs such as TAP, ETA and Pell as well as student loans backed by the federal government; and
Spend at least 50 percent of their revenues on student instruction. This does not take into account student academic support programs and personnel wrap around services that help to ensure students successfully graduate on time and find jobs in their field of study.