About: David Halperin
Twitter: @DaHalperin
Bio: David Halperin is the co-founder and editor of Republic Report. Halperin, a self-employed lawyer based in Washington DC, engages in public advocacy, investigative work, and legal representation on a wide range of issues, including higher education, climate change, democracy, corruption, open government, and national security. He also advises organizations and companies on strategy, policy, communications, and legal matters. He is of counsel to Public.Resource.org, a non-profit focused on making legal and government materials available for free to the public.
Halperin’s investigative and advocacy work on predatory for-profit colleges since 2010 has spurred reforms in policy and regulations, triggered law enforcement investigations, and led to the closure of numerous deceptive schools.
Halperin was from 2004 until 2012 the founding director of Campus Progress and senior vice president at the Center for American Progress. Before that, he was: senior policy advisor for Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential campaign; founding executive director of the American Constitution Society; White House speechwriter and special assistant for national security affairs to President Clinton; co-founder of the Internet company Progressive Networks (now called RealNetworks); counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee; law clerk to U.S. District Judge Gerhard A. Gesell (D.D.C.); research assistant to Robert S. McNamara; and research analyst at the Arms Control Association.
Halperin has represented clients in the U.S. Supreme Court and various state and federal courts. Among many other efforts, Halperin helped represent Greenpeace in an unprecedented 2004 Miami criminal jury trial over protest activity, resulting in a directed verdict of acquittal; aided climate groups facing investigation by the House Science Committee during 2015-16; and represented Public Resource in landmark copyright litigation from 2012 to 2024 over efforts to make federal regulations publicly available online without charge.
Halperin writes at Republic Report, and his articles also have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, The Nation, Politico, Slate, Foreign Policy, and other outlets. In recent years he has testified before the House Oversight Committee and at several federal agencies, and he has spoken at major conferences and events across the country. Halperin has served since 2007 on the board of directors of Public Citizen.
Halperin graduated from Yale College and Yale Law School.
EXCLUSIVE: Michelle Rhee To For-Profit College Industry: You’re “Doing Incredible Work”
She promised a bang, but delivered a whimper. Republic Report was the first to report that Michelle Rhee, the hard-charging former chancellor of the District of Columbia public schools, would be addressing the Las Vegas annual convention of APSCU, the largest trade association for the controversial for-profit college industry. Not everyone is a fan of Rhee’s
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Why Are a Former President of the MacArthur Foundation, and Former Governors Kean and Rendell, Paid By a For-Profit College Group?
Why would a leader with a good reputation affiliate himself with an industry that has a bad reputation? If you’ve visited this website before, you might suspect that money is involved. And you’d be right. On May 29, the New York Times published an editorial calling for government action to address spiraling college debt. The Times
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New Facts About Mitt Romney’s Favorite College: It’s The 3rd Most Expensive College in America, And It Gives Politicians, Especially Romney, About The Most Money
When reporters in Iowa asked Mitt Romney last fall what he planned to do about higher education in America, he praised by name Florida’s Full Sail University and the University of Phoenix, and for-profit colleges in general, which he said used innovative strategies to “hold down the cost of their education.” Romney said, “You are going to
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Federal Appeals Court Tosses Out Lobby Group’s Attempt To Block Accountability For Predatory For-Profit Schools
Today a federal appeals court in Washington, DC, issued a decision in a challenge by the for-profit college lobbying group APSCU to regulations issued by the Obama Administration. The regulations are aimed at combatting well-documented deceptive and misleading recruiting activities by some for for-profit schools, activities that have lured many students into low-quality programs and, eventually,
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Major National Groups Ask White House To Stop Industry From Charging Citizens $1000 And Up To Read Federal Law
Right now, private organizations insist on charging U.S. citizens hundreds of dollars simply to read a copy of standards they issue, standards that regulate things like gas pipeline safety, crane usage, and toy making — even though citizens are required to obey those standards, because the government has incorporated them into federal regulations. This adds
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Aggressive Subprime College Industry Lobby Group Ratchets Down — For Now
The $35 billion for-profit college industry gets most of its revenue –for many of the big schools, over 90 percent of its revenue — from federal financial aid, a.k.a. your tax dollars. The industry has lobbied hard in recent years to avoid accountability for high-priced, low-quality programs, even after multiple investigations have exposed waste, fraud,
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House GOP Effort To Please Subprime College Donors Completely Backfires
Standing before soldiers at Fort Stewart, Georgia, last month, President Obama signed an executive order to protect U.S. troops, veterans, and their families from predatory abuses by some for-profit colleges. Obama delivered powerful remarks, charging that such for-profit schools “aren’t interested in helping you…. They are interested in getting the money.” He called the schools’ conduct “disgraceful” and
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Romney’s Disastrous Education Agenda: Reward His Donors, Make Sure Money Dominates Politics
Mitt Romney has just released his plan for educating America’s young people, and it’s wholly consistent with his overall philosophy: Allow money to dominate politics, and everything will work out great. Except that, when it comes to policies on college education, we tried that approach under George W. Bush, and it was a disaster for
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