Last week the White House released new data on student outcomes for institutions subject to gainful employment regulation. The data reveal that 803 programs fell short of the required standards, meaning their students will lose access to federal student aid, including Pell grants and federal student loans. The group facing sanctions was largely comprised of programs at for-profit institutions, but programs at a few highly reputable, non-profit institutions also made the list, including Harvard, John’s Hopkins and University of Southern California. The gainful employment rules, which were put in place in 2014, require vocationally oriented programs participating in federal student aid to meet a heightened standard of student financial success, measured by a combination of student loan burden and earnings.

Some conservatives have argued that these regulations are overreaching and unfairly target for-profit schools. Among the 8,637 programs subject to the regulations, about two thirds are housed at for-profit colleges. The critics are right in one respect: for-profit institutions shouldn’t face a more stringent system of accountability. But they are wrong in another. These regulations don’t need to be clawed back. Instead, we need to do away with the current system of accountability and hold all institutions, regardless of their tax status, accountable for the outcomes their students face.