An association representing for-profit colleges sued the United States Department of Education because of regulations the association claims targets their institutions.

The Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities filed a lawsuit against the Department of Education on Friday, APSCU said in a statement.

APSCU filed the suit in order to block portions of regulations that would take effect on Jul. 1 and “impose unlawful and unfair limitation on access to higher education,” the statement said.

The regulations would harm students, slow innovation, limit the amount of information schools share with current and prospective students and have other unintended consequences APSCU spokesperson Bob Cohen said in an e-mail to The Badger Herald.

“We disagree that private sector colleges and universities should be singled out for special regulatory treatment,” Cohen said. “We do a great job educating at-risk students – students underrepresented in other sectors of higher education – and this fact should be recognized by the department and elsewhere.”

Cohen said the rules fall into three different categories.

State authorization changes would make it harder for schools to offer distance learning programs, Cohen said, adding the misrepresentation regulation, imposed to prevent student from being misled upon recruitment, would make schools susceptible to harsh punishments for inadvertent mistakes in the recruitment process.

He added the incentive compensation rule, which could prevent colleges from compensating their admission and recruitment personnel, will leave colleges completely in the dark as to how to compensate individuals in the job functions.

Noel Radomski, director of the Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Post-Secondary Education, said the rules the Department of Education has developed are necessary.

“I think they are moderate regulations that deal with severe problems that we’re having,” Radomski said.

Radomski said many states, including Wisconsin, have legislation that already regulates for-profit colleges.

He added not all for-profit colleges are problematic, but the outliers – called degree mills – make regulation necessary.

Businesses are beginning to suffer because they are hiring people who have degrees from unaccredited institutions but do not have the skills to perform their jobs well, Radomski said.

“For the United States and Wisconsin, the implications are concerning for our businesses,” Radomski said.