The Biden administration is taking its first stand against for-profit colleges, signaling plans to increase scrutiny of the schools, Bloomberg News reported. The Education Department denied an appeal by Florida Coastal School of Law to participate in federal student aid programs, saying it failed to meet the required standards. The move marks a reversal from the Trump administration, which loosened oversight of such schools, and demonstrates President Joe Biden’s promise to stop them for potentially profiting off of students. For-profit institutions, like most colleges, rely on access to federal loans for enrollment. “We’re going to be tough but fair with the for-profit colleges under our purview,” said Richard Cordray, the department’s head of Federal Student Aid and a former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Skirting standards is “not going to fly in this new administration. Whatever happened in the past, it’s a new day,” he said in an interview. Florida Coastal was denied because it received the department’s lowest financial responsibility score. It had too much debt, failed to provide advertised services, and its financial statements raised doubt about whether it could continue operations, the department said. The private-equity firm that owned 98.6% of the institution, Sterling Partners, relinquished control of the school last month, the department said.
