Holly Petraeus Statement on Senate Help Committee Report on Military Education Benefits

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee released data which revealed that education benefits administered by the Department of Defense for active-duty servicemembers and their dependent family members were disproportionately distributed to for-profit colleges.

In response, Holly Petraeus, who leads the Office of Servicemember Affairs at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, highlighted the impact of the “90-10” rule, which allows for-profit colleges to count military education benefits to meet the 10% requirement for revenue from non-federal sources.

Petraeus said the following:

“The information released today by the Senate HELP Committee reaffirms that there is a far-from-level playing field when it comes to college recruitment of students who use military benefits. A small number of for-profit colleges with large marketing budgets are scooping up the lion’s share of military students. Not-for-profit schools often cannot compete with that kind of marketing, even though they may offer an excellent education at a lower price.

Servicemembers and veterans need clear information to make a good decision about where they will spend their military education benefits. Too often, I hear that some for-profit schools with aggressive marketing machines are leading military students to big student-loan debt, rather than career advancement.

I appreciate the HELP Committee’s continued attention to this issue.”