FACTS Newsroom Article:

Officially Submitted Document In Response To The Department's March 25, 2014 Federal Register Notice Seeking Public Comment And Recommended Revisions To Their Proposed Regulation: Program Integrity: Gainful Employment Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (Docket ID ED-2014-OPE-0039).

This article was provided by: American Association of Cosmetology Schools
Date: May 28, 2014

The Government Relations Committee has new information to share from Greg Jones and Tom Netting.

Per GRC:

http://beautyschools.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/5-27-14-Sec-Duncan-GE-Comment-Letter.pdf

http://beautyschools.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/AACS_-Comprehensive-2014-GE-NPRM-Response-FINAL.pdf

Just moments ago, on behalf of the general membership of AACS, the Government Relations Committee (GRC) officially submitted http://beautyschools.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/AACS_-Comprehensive-2014-GE-NPRM-Response-FINAL.pdf document in response to the Department's March 25, 2014 Federal Register Notice seeking public comment and recommended revisions to their proposed regulation: Program Integrity: Gainful Employment Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (Docket ID ED-2014-OPE-0039).

Over the course of the Memorial Day Weekend and today, your GRC has – and continues to – receive your individual responses which are needed and greatly appreciated as we attempt to prevent the Department from once again attempting to move forward with the development of final regulations in this area!

While we have all been preparing our responses, the GRC has been working with interested parties on Capitol Hill on other needed and necessary comments.

In fact, earlier today a bipartisan group of 40 Members of Congress – including House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman Jon Kline and Postsecondary Subcommittee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx – weighed in with the Secretary of Education and the U.S. Department of Education expressing their concern with specific aspects of the proposed regulation. They are calling upon the Secretary and the Department to work with them "to achieve shared goals, while at the same time promoting and protecting a diverse system of education that will serve students of all ages, income levels, and backgrounds."

Many of you may note that their concerns do not include AACS' primary concern regarding the lack of complete and comprehensive data. Do not be alarmed by this omission. The GRC asks that you remain patient as there is still more to come from Congress in the days, weeks, and months ahead while the Department is now left to ponder all of our collectively submitted observations, concerns, and recommendations.

After you have taken a deep breath, and applauded yourself for taking an active role in submitting your responses, take a look at the attached letter from a bipartisan group of Members of Congress and see if yours' signed on to this important opening salvo in the latest phase of the negotiations surrounding GE.

· IF YOUR MEMBER SIGNED ON – TAKE THE OPPORTUNITY TO CALL OR EMAIL AND PERSONALLY THANK THEM FOR DOING SO – AND SHARE YOUR RESPONSE WITH THEM AS WELL.

· IF YOUR MEMBER OF CONGRESS DID NOT – TAKE THIS OPPORTUNITY TO SHARE YOUR SUBMISSION TO THE DEPARTMENT WITH THEM - AND REQUEST THEIR SUPPORT FOR FUTURE LETTERS OF CONCERN ON THE ISSUE.

We have a lot of work ahead of us, but on behalf of your GRC, I want to thank you for all of your efforts in responding to this Call to Action. We are in the process of consolidating the list of all member schools who took action on behalf of their own students, staff and institution(s), and will be sharing a summary of not only the important issues you provided in our response, but a broader summary next week that includes key takeaways from the submissions of both our friends and colleagues, as well as our detractors so that we can continue to refine and hone our message and promote it both with the Administration and Department and Congress going forward.