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.
For-Profit College Barons “Are Laughing” At Their Fortune Under Biden
It took the Obama administration just a few months after taking office in 2009 to start looking into the looming scandal of for-profit higher education: Businesses, of both the strip mall and the Wall Street variety, were using deceptive and predatory practices to lure veterans and low-income students into poor quality college programs, in order
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New Legal Filing Underscores DeVos Hostility to Debt Relief for Scammed Students
It’s good to know that Donald Trump’s education secretary, Betsy DeVos, joined the small minority of Republicans who opposed Trump’s conspiracy to overthrow the United States government. But when it comes to her views on education, including the appalling abuses of veterans, single mothers, and other students by for-profit colleges, DeVos is no hero. If
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The 17 Questions The Education Dept. Asked A University President Before He Resigned
On May 19, Michael Frola, a career official of the U.S. Department of Education, sent a letter to the president of the University of Phoenix, which, with a total enrollment of some 90,000 students, is one of the largest higher education institutions in the United States. In the letter, first reported on last Friday and
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With Debt Relief for Corinthian Students Finally Here, Time to Stop Funding Predatory Colleges
The Hill has reported this afternoon that the Biden Administration, at an event tomorrow featuring Vice President Kamala Harris, will announce widespread debt relief for former students of for-profit Corinthian Colleges, which collapsed in 2015 following revelations of blatant deceptive practices. [UPDATE 06-01-22 6:45 pm: The U.S. Department of Education just released a statement announcing
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Florida Colleges Are Nation’s Worst on Nursing Exam Pass Rate
While Florida governor Ron DeSantis promotes himself as a champion of education and economic opportunity, his state is lagging far behind every other state on a key measure of educational quality, social mobility, and public health standards: whether people who complete nursing school can then pass the NCLEX nurse licensing exam. In the first quarter
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Debt Relief for Defrauded Students Is Long Overdue – And So Is Accountability for Kaplan
Lawyers representing former students of Kaplan Career Institute in Massachusetts have sued the U.S. Department of Education, alleging an unlawful and unconscionable failure of the Department to cancel the students’ federal loans — seven years after the Massachusetts attorney general settled with the school over charges that it deceived and defrauded students. The year after
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Biden Administration Must Act to Protect Americans From Chemical Disasters
Last week, a group of national security and environmental experts — including former EPA administrator and New Jersey governor Christine Todd Whitman, former OSHA head David Michaels, and retired Army generals Russel Honoré and Randy Manner — wrote to Biden EPA director Michael Regan calling on the administration to issue a strong rule this year
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Bill in Congress Would Bar Americans From Reciting Our Own Laws
Last week, 14 organizations wrote to leaders of the House Judiciary Committee to oppose dangerous legislation titled the “PRO Codes Act.” The new bill provides that any “original work of authorship” that is “adopted or incorporated by reference, in full or in part, into any Federal, State, or municipal law or regulation” would have copyright
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