Dive Brief:

• Outgoing Secretary of Education Arne Duncan says one regret from his time in the department was not cracking down on ‘bad actors’ in the for-profit sector sooner than he did.
• The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that Duncan mentioned gainful employment twice in comments with reporters on Monday, first in relation to his legacy and then in a question about his failures as secretary.
• The Department of Education is expected to tackle problems with accreditation in the final year of the Obama administration, and officials plan to release proposed reforms this month.

Dive Insight:

The gainful employment rule, while proposed in 2009, did not take effect until this past July because of lawsuits. The rule withholds federal student aid financing from schools whose students do not graduate and make enough money to pay back their student loans. It applies to career training programs, and almost all of the schools expected to lose funding because of the rule are for-profit institutions.

Depending on what happens during the 2016 election, the rule could be short-lived. Accountability has been a buzzword in Washington, but opponents of the gainful employment rule have said its threshold is arbitrary.