Presidential DocumentExecutive Order 136072012-10715
Establishing Principles of Excellence for Educational Institutions Serving Service Members, Veterans, Spouses, and Other Family Members
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Published
May 2, 2012
Signed
April 27, 2012
Issuing agencies
Executive Office of the President
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 77 Issue 85 (Wednesday, May 2, 2012)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 85 (Wednesday, May 2, 2012)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 25861-25864]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[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.
<GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT>
(Presidential Sig.)
THE WHITE HOUSE,
April 27, 2012.
[FR Doc. 2012-10715
Filed 5-1-12; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3295-F2-P
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</html>Indexed from Federal Register on May 2, 2012.
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