Establishing Principles of Excellence for Educational Institutions Serving Service Members, Veterans, Spouses, and Other Family Members, 25861-25864 [2012-10715]

Agencies

• Executive Office of the President

[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 85 (Wednesday, May 2, 2012)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 25861-25864]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-10715]




                        Presidential Documents 



Federal Register / Vol. 77 , No. 85 / Wednesday, May 2, 2012 / 
Presidential Documents

[[Page 25861]]


                Executive Order 13607 of April 27, 2012

                
Establishing Principles of Excellence for 
                Educational Institutions Serving Service Members, 
                Veterans, Spouses, and Other Family Members

                By the authority vested in me as President by the 
                Constitution and the laws of the United States of 
                America, and in order to ensure that Federal military 
                and veterans educational benefits programs are 
                providing service members, veterans, spouses, and other 
                family members with the information, support, and 
                protections they deserve, it is hereby ordered as 
                follows:

                Section 1. Policy. The original GI Bill, approved just 
                weeks after D-Day, educated nearly 8 million Americans 
                and helped transform this Nation. We owe the same 
                obligations to this generation of service men and women 
                as was afforded that previous one. This is the promise 
                of the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 
                2008 (title V, Public Law 110-252) (Post-9/11 GI Bill) 
                and the continued provision of educational benefits in 
                the Department of Defense's Tuition Assistance Program 
                (10 U.S.C. 2007): to provide our service members, 
                veterans, spouses, and other family members the 
                opportunity to pursue a high-quality education and gain 
                the skills and training they need to fill the jobs of 
                tomorrow.

                Since the Post-9/11 GI Bill became law, there have been 
                reports of aggressive and deceptive targeting of 
                service members, veterans, and their families by some 
                educational institutions. For example, some 
                institutions have recruited veterans with serious brain 
                injuries and emotional vulnerabilities without 
                providing academic support and counseling; encouraged 
                service members and veterans to take out costly 
                institutional loans rather than encouraging them to 
                apply for Federal student loans first; engaged in 
                misleading recruiting practices on military 
                installations; and failed to disclose meaningful 
                information that allows potential students to determine 
                whether the institution has a good record of graduating 
                service members, veterans, and their families and 
                positioning them for success in the workforce.

                To ensure our service members, veterans, spouses, and 
                other family members have the information they need to 
                make informed decisions concerning their well-earned 
                Federal military and veterans educational benefits, I 
                am directing my Administration to develop Principles of 
                Excellence to strengthen oversight, enforcement, and 
                accountability within these benefits programs.

                Sec. 2. Principles of Excellence for Educational 
                Institutions Serving Service Members, Veterans, 
                Spouses, and Other Family Members. The Departments of 
                Defense, Veterans Affairs, and Education shall 
                establish Principles of Excellence (Principles) to 
                apply to educational institutions receiving funding 
                from Federal military and veterans educational benefits 
                programs, including benefits programs provided by the 
                Post-9/11 GI Bill and the Tuition Assistance Program. 
                The Principles should ensure that these educational 
                institutions provide meaningful information to service 
                members, veterans, spouses, and other family members 
                about the financial cost and quality of educational 
                institutions to assist those prospective students in 
                making choices about how to use their Federal 
                educational benefits; prevent abusive and deceptive 
                recruiting practices that target the recipients of 
                Federal military and veterans educational benefits; and 
                ensure that educational institutions provide high-
                quality academic and student support services to 
                active-duty service members, reservists, members of the 
                National Guard, veterans, and military families.

[[Page 25862]]

                To the extent permitted by law, the Principles, 
                implemented pursuant to section 3 of this order, should 
                require educational institutions receiving funding 
                pursuant to Federal military and veterans educational 
                benefits to:

                    (a) prior to enrollment, provide prospective 
                students who are eligible to receive Federal military 
                and veterans educational benefits with a personalized 
                and standardized form, as developed in a manner set 
                forth by the Secretary of Education, working with the 
                Secretaries of Defense and Veterans Affairs, to help 
                those prospective students understand the total cost of 
                the educational program, including tuition and fees; 
                the amount of that cost that will be covered by Federal 
                educational benefits; the type and amount of financial 
                aid they may qualify for; their estimated student loan 
                debt upon graduation; information about student 
                outcomes; and other information to facilitate 
                comparison of aid packages offered by different 
                educational institutions;
                    (b) inform students who are eligible to receive 
                Federal military and veterans educational benefits of 
                the availability of Federal financial aid and have in 
                place policies to alert those students of their 
                potential eligibility for that aid before packaging or 
                arranging private student loans or alternative 
                financing programs;
                    (c) end fraudulent and unduly aggressive recruiting 
                techniques on and off military installations, as well 
                as misrepresentation, payment of incentive 
                compensation, and failure to meet State authorization 
                requirements, consistent with the regulations issued by 
                the Department of Education (34 C.F.R. 668.71-668.75, 
                668.14, and 600.9);
                    (d) obtain the approval of the institution's 
                accrediting agency for new course or program offerings 
                before enrolling students in such courses or programs, 
                provided that such approval is appropriate under the 
                substantive change requirements of the accrediting 
                agency;
                    (e) allow service members and reservists to be 
                readmitted to a program if they are temporarily unable 
                to attend class or have to suspend their studies due to 
                service requirements, and take additional steps to 
                accommodate short absences due to service obligations, 
                provided that satisfactory academic progress is being 
                made by the service members and reservists prior to 
                suspending their studies;
                    (f) agree to an institutional refund policy that is 
                aligned with the refund of unearned student aid rules 
                applicable to Federal student aid provided through the 
                Department of Education under Title IV of the Higher 
                Education Act of 1965, as required under section 484B 
                of that Act when students withdraw prior to course 
                completion;
                    (g) provide educational plans for all individuals 
                using Federal military and veterans educational 
                benefits that detail how they will fulfill all the 
                requirements necessary to graduate and the expected 
                timeline of completion; and
                    (h) designate a point of contact for academic and 
                financial advising (including access to disability 
                counseling) to assist service member and veteran 
                students and their families with the successful 
                completion of their studies and with their job 
                searches.

                Sec. 3. Implementation of the Principles of Excellence.

                    (a) The Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs 
                shall reflect the Principles described in section 2 of 
                this order in new agreements with educational 
                institutions, to the extent practicable and permitted 
                by law, concerning participation in the Yellow Ribbon 
                Program for veterans under the Post-9/11 GI Bill or the 
                Tuition Assistance Program for active duty service 
                members. The Department of Veterans Affairs shall also 
                notify all institutions participating in the Post-9/11 
                GI Bill program that they are strongly encouraged to 
                comply with the Principles and shall post on the 
                Department's website those that do.
                    (b) The Secretaries of Defense, Veterans Affairs, 
                and Education, in consultation with the Director of the 
                Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (CFPB)

[[Page 25863]]

                and the Attorney General, shall take immediate action 
                to implement this order, and, within 90 days from the 
                date of this order, report to the President their 
                progress on implementation, including promptly revising 
                regulations, Department of Defense Instructions, 
                guidance documents, Memoranda of Understanding, and 
                other policies governing programs authorized or funded 
                by the Post-9/11 GI Bill and the Tuition Assistance 
                Program to implement the Principles, to the extent 
                permitted by law.
                    (c) The Secretaries of Defense, Veterans Affairs, 
                and Education shall develop a comprehensive strategy 
                for developing service member and veteran student 
                outcome measures that are comparable, to the maximum 
                extent practicable, across Federal military and 
                veterans educational benefit programs, including, but 
                not limited to, the Post-9/11 GI Bill and the Tuition 
                Assistance Program. To the extent practicable, the 
                student outcome measures should rely on existing 
                administrative data to minimize the reporting burden on 
                institutions participating in these benefit programs. 
                The student outcome measures should permit comparisons 
                across Federal educational programs and across 
                institutions and types of institutions. The Secretary 
                of Education, in consultation with the Secretaries of 
                Defense and Veterans Affairs, shall also collect from 
                educational institutions, as part of the Integrated 
                Postsecondary Education Data System and other data 
                collection systems, information on the amount of 
                funding received pursuant to the Post-9/11 GI Bill and 
                the Tuition Assistance Program. The Secretary of 
                Education shall make this information publicly 
                available on the College Navigator Website.
                    (d) The Secretary of Veterans Affairs, in 
                consultation with the Secretaries of Defense and 
                Education, shall provide to prospective military and 
                veteran students, prior to using their benefits, 
                streamlined tools to compare educational institutions 
                using key measures of affordability and value through 
                the Department of Veterans Affairs' eBenefits portal. 
                The eBenefits portal shall be updated to facilitate 
                access to school performance information, consumer 
                protection information, and key Federal financial aid 
                documents. The Secretaries of Defense and Veterans 
                Affairs shall also ensure that service members and 
                veterans have access to that information through 
                educational counseling offered by those Departments.

                Sec. 4. Strengthening Enforcement and Compliance 
                Mechanisms. Service members, veterans, spouses, and 
                other family members should have access to a strong 
                enforcement system through which to file complaints 
                when institutions fail to follow the Principles. Within 
                90 days of the date of this order, the Secretaries of 
                Defense and Veterans Affairs, in consultation with the 
                Secretary of Education and the Director of the CFPB, as 
                well as with the Attorney General, as appropriate, 
                shall submit to the President a plan to strengthen 
                enforcement and compliance mechanisms. The plan shall 
                include proposals to:

                    (a) create a centralized complaint system for 
                students receiving Federal military and veterans 
                educational benefits to register complaints that can be 
                tracked and responded to by the Departments of Defense, 
                Veterans Affairs, Justice, and Education, the CFPB, and 
                other relevant agencies;
                    (b) institute uniform procedures for receiving and 
                processing complaints across the State Approving 
                Agencies (SAAs) that work with the Department of 
                Veterans Affairs to review participating institutions, 
                provide a coordinated mechanism across SAAs to alert 
                the Department of Veterans Affairs to any complaints 
                that have been registered at the State level, and 
                create procedures for sharing information about 
                complaints with the appropriate State officials, 
                accrediting agency representatives, and the Secretary 
                of Education;
                    (c) institute uniform procedures for referring 
                potential matters for civil or criminal enforcement to 
                the Department of Justice and other relevant agencies;
                    (d) establish procedures for targeted risk-based 
                program reviews of institutions to ensure compliance 
                with the Principles;

[[Page 25864]]

                    (e) establish new uniform rules and strengthen 
                existing procedures for access to military 
                installations by educational institutions. These new 
                rules should ensure, at a minimum, that only those 
                institutions that enter into a memorandum of agreement 
                pursuant to section 3(a) of this order are permitted 
                entry onto a Federal military installation for the 
                purposes of recruitment. The Department of Defense 
                shall include specific steps for instructing 
                installation commanders on commercial solicitation 
                rules and the requirement of the Principles outlined in 
                section 2(c) of this order; and
                    (f) take all appropriate steps to ensure that 
                websites and programs are not deceptively and 
                fraudulently marketing educational services and 
                benefits to program beneficiaries, including initiating 
                a process to protect the term ``GI Bill'' and other 
                military or veterans-related terms as trademarks, as 
                appropriate.

                Sec. 5. General Provisions. (a) This order shall be 
                implemented consistent with applicable law and subject 
                to the availability of appropriations.

                    (b) Nothing in this order shall be construed to 
                impair or otherwise affect:

(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department, agency, or the 
head thereof; or

(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget 
relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

                    (c) This order is not intended to, and does not, 
                create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, 
                enforceable at law or in equity by any party against 
                the United States, its departments, agencies, or 
                entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any 
                other person. 
                
                
                    (Presidential Sig.)

                THE WHITE HOUSE,

                    April 27, 2012.

[FR Doc. 2012-10715
Filed 5-1-12; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3295-F2-P