GOP Rep Goes To Bat For Trade Schools In Lame-Duck Congress

Republican Rep. Mark Harris of North Carolina is sponsoring legislation in the waning weeks of the 119th Congress to repeal a rule he claims is unfairly targeting trade schools.

If passed, the Promoting Access and Revenue Integrity Through Institutional Transparency (PARITY) Act would expand Americans’ access to trade school and vocational education by repealing the 90/10 rule, Harris said in a panel hosted by the non-profit Consumer Action for a Strong Economy and attended by the Daily Caller News Foundation. The rule, which caps the revenue a school can receive from the federal government, applies only to proprietary schools, not non-profit colleges and universities.

“The 90/10 rule unfairly singles out career and vocational schools while allowing other institutions to operate under a different set of standards,” Harris said.

The PARITY Act would remove a provision from the Higher Education Amendments of 1992 that requires proprietary schools to derive at least 10% of their revenue from non-federal sources. Harris argues that this creates an unfair barrier for low-income students seeking vocational training as opposed to a two- or four-year college degree.

Because of the 90/10 rule, proprietary schools resort to raising tuition and creating costly private loans for students to maintain compliance with the Higher Education Act, Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Department of Education Jeff Andrade explained during the panel.

Furthermore, because of the President Joe Biden-era American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, GI Bill tuition assistance no longer counts toward the 10% non-federal aid requirement, which Harris says has restricted veterans’ ability to receive career training after concluding their service.

The 90/10 rule was originally intended as a provision promoting high-quality trade schools, but PARITY Act supporters argue that the rule is now redundant because of new quality-assurance mechanisms for schools implemented through the 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) signed into law by President Donald Trump.

While the 90/10 rule determines a school’s eligibility for government student aid via input measures, the new quality-assurance rules under OBBBA focus on student outcomes, Andrade explained. OBBBA regulations apply universally to both proprietary schools and traditional colleges, and dictate schools’ worthiness to receive federal financial aid based on students’ return on investment from taking out loans.

If the 90/10 rule applied to traditional colleges and universities, 80% of public two-year colleges and 40% of public four-year colleges would be out of compliance, Harris explained.

“It’s time for Congress to end Washington’s double standard against career schools,” Harris said.

Andrade anticipates resistance to the PARITY Act from those concerned about its potential costs to the federal government and American taxpayers.

“Changing the 90/10 rule, if you look at it historically, has been challenging. The first challenge is that there is a cost on the mandatory side we’ve evaluated to be about $1.5 billion over ten years. That’s a function of the fact that student loans cost money; they don’t really make money for the federal government.”

Harris believes that career schools are well worth this cost.

“Career schools, there’s no question, offer a much more affordable and practical path to education by giving that hands-on training and a direct path into the workforce 86% of trade school graduates are employed in their field within 12 months after graduation. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates a 12% job growth in those trades by 2031, compared to 5% across all occupations.”

Harris faces an uphill battle passing the PARITY Act with only 17 in-session days left in the Republican-controlled 119th Congress.

“I wish I could say with assurance that we are going to , but my Heavens. If they can get it moved in the Senate, we’re gonna get it through the House. That seems to be the way the whole 119th Congress has gone,” Harris said.

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