Thompson Sheds Further Light on Alleged Improprieties at U.S. Dept. of Education

Washington, D.C. – Leading aggressive oversight of the U.S. Department of Education, today during a hearing held by the Higher Education and Workforce Training Subcommittee, Congressman Glenn ‘GT’ Thompson prompted Inspector General Kathleen Tighe to further investigate allegations of improprieties within the Department of Education with regard to recently unveiled communications between the department and Wall Street about proposed regulations.

Thompson submitted for the record a letter which cited a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that indicates high level officials at the Department of Education were speaking to hedge fund managers regarding the release date of proposed "Gainful Employment" regulations for proprietary career colleges, many of which are publicly traded entities.

The emails warrant further examination from the Department’s Office of Inspector General. Thompson pressed Inspector General Tighe to ensure that they would be working with the Security and Exchange Commission to further investigate questions surrounding the FOIA findings.

Thompson has continued thorough oversight of the Administration’s regulatory proposals and program funding, in particular those related to Gainful Employment, a process that would impose arbitrary requirements on proprietary schools and deny access to thousands of higher education students, and has recently drawn bipartisan opposition.

In May of 2010, Thompson requested the Department of Education to vacate the proposed regulations and recently worked with a bipartisan group of colleagues to pass House Amendment 214, an amendment to the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act of 2011, which would prohibit funds to be used by the Department of Education to implement regulations on Gainful Employment.

You can watch video of the hearing here.