Gainful Employment Rules for U.S. Higher Education: Effects of Technical Information Wars and Policy Monopoly Change

• In Event: Roundtable Session 10
  In Roundtable Session: Academic Employment in Higher Education

Abstract

This policy analysis research uses advocacy coalition theory and punctuated equilibrium theory to illuminate policy change dynamics that occurred within the dramatic proposed policy change in federal regulations of for-profits’ government loan eligibility, particularly during 2010. Hypothesis-based, structured analysis of 84 articles from the Chronicle of Higher Education offer evidence in support of three ACT and PET-based hypotheses. Findings are that advocacy coalitions increasingly politicized the use of expert-based information; expert-based information changed policy brokers’ actions with respect to the proposed ‘gainful employment’ rules (i.e. delay, compromise); and change in the policy monopoly (i.e. Republican to Democratic political control) created a “punctuation" (i.e. dramatic policy change) in the regulation of loan default rates in higher education. Discussion and debate welcomed.

Author

• Robin R. Lasota, University of Washington