Scramble Follows Education Department’s Denial of Federal Aid to 80,000 California Students – The Chronicle of Higher Education
Higher-education leaders and policy makers across the country are scrambling this week after the announcement that as many as 80,000 students in California could be cut off from federal financial aid.
The U.S. Department of Education released a notice on Monday that California students enrolled in distance or online programs at public or private nonprofit colleges based outside the state would no longer qualify for federal aid.
The reason is that California does not have a process to handle the complaints of those students, as required under the “state authorization” rules devised by the Obama administration. The Trump administration had sought to delay those regulations, set to go into effect a year ago, but a judge ruled recently that they be enforced.
The department released its guidance so late in the summer that California students at risk of losing federal aid will not have time to make alternative plans, said a letter to the education secretary, Betsy DeVos, sent on Thursday by six higher-education groups.
“In short, the likely outcome will be that thousands of students are either forced to drop out of, or never begin, postsecondary education,” the letter says.
Western Governors University, a nonprofit institution that enrolls mostly working adults, could see some 11,000 students lose their aid, said Scott D. Pulsipher, its president. And the students rely on federal aid, he said, with about 70 percent coming from low-income or minority families.