# PROTECT Students Act of 2025 - Plain Language Summary

## What This Bill Does

The PROTECT Students Act is designed to increase accountability and transparency in higher education, particularly for for-profit colleges and vocational programs. The bill creates new standards to measure whether educational programs actually provide good financial value to students by comparing how much debt graduates take on versus how much they earn after graduation. It also strengthens protections for students who believe they've been misled by their schools and increases federal oversight of colleges and their contractors.

## Who Is Affected

**Students** benefit most directly—the bill protects them from enrolling in programs that leave them with excessive debt relative to their earnings potential. **Taxpayers** also benefit since federal student aid funds are involved. **For-profit colleges and vocational institutions** face stricter requirements and oversight. **Schools and loan servicers** must comply with new reporting requirements and standards. The bill particularly targets institutions that may not be serving students' financial interests well.

## Key Provisions

- **Debt-to-Earnings Standards**: Programs must keep student loan payments below 20% of graduates' discretionary income (income above 150% of poverty level) and must show graduates earn meaningfully more than high school graduates
- **Student Protections**: Strengthens borrower defense rules when schools misrepresent their programs and prevents schools from blocking students' legal action
- **Increased Oversight**: Creates new federal oversight mechanisms, complaint tracking systems, and requires schools to disclose more information about job placement rates and how they spend tuition money
- **Enforcement**: Establishes dedicated federal enforcement staff and coordination committees to monitor for-profit education institutions more closely

PROTECT Students Act of 2025

Durbin, Richard J.

Preventing Risky Operations from Threatening the Education and Career Trajectories of Students Act of 2025 or the PROTECT Students Act of 2025This bill sets forth provisions to address financial predatory practices in higher education, including by establishing additional protections for students and student loan borrowers.Specifically, the bill provides statutory authority for Department of Education (ED) regulations related to gainful employment, borrower defense to repayment, and closed school discharges. For example, ED's 2023 gainful employment regulations specify that ED considers a career education program to be preparing students for gainful employment if it meets specified debt-to-earnings or earnings premium measures.Additionally, the bill prohibits institutions of higher education (IHEs) that participate in federal student aid programs from taking specified actions, such as (1) restricting students' ability to pursue claims against&nbsp;IHEs in court, and (2) withholding official transcripts because of a balance owed by the student.The bill requires IHEs to spend at least 30% of their tuition and fee revenue on instruction.The bill also includes additional oversight measures, such as<ul><li>providing statutory authority for an enforcement unit within ED's Office of Federal Student Aid to assess complaints against&nbsp;IHEs, third-party servicers, and student loan&nbsp;servicers;&nbsp;</li><li>establishing the For-Profit Education Oversight Coordination Committee within the executive branch; and</li><li>requiring ED to establish and operate a system that tracks complaints or reports of suspicious activity by IHEs, third-party servicers, and student loan servicers.</li></ul>The bill makes funding available to ED for&nbsp;the administrative costs of operating student aid programs.