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.
DeVos Advisory Panel Should Not Punish Accreditor Over Education Department’s Own Abuses
Today, I am one of the public commenters scheduled to address the Department of Education’s National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI) regarding the Department’s effort to discipline one of its recognized college accreditors, Higher Learning Commission. Here, roughly, is what I plan to say: In April 2018, two employees of Dream Center
Continue Reading >>>
House Committee: DeVos Aide Diane Jones Repeatedly Misled Congress
A report that the House Education and Labor Committee released this afternoon provides fresh evidence to support what has been clear for a long time: Betsy DeVos’s top higher education aide, Acting Deputy Under Secretary of Education Diane Auer Jones, has repeatedly made false statements to Congress regarding her role in the debacle over Dream
Continue Reading >>>
COVID College Cons – Bad Education Deals Sold in the Pandemic
This article was written by Kate Manning Kennedy, senior advisor at the Project on Predatory Student Lending, and Michelle Wang, an intern at the project. It is part of a series, produced by Republic Report and the Project on Predatory Student Lending (part of Harvard Law School’s Legal Services Center) — COVID College Cons. This piece looks at some of
Continue Reading >>>
For-Profit Colleges Race To Block Students From Suing Them
Donald Trump and his education secretary Betsy DeVos, over the objections of bipartisan majorities in both houses of Congress, recently rewrote a key federal regulation so that going forward it will be almost impossible for former students who were deceived and ripped off by their colleges to have their federal loans cancelled, even though a
Continue Reading >>>
22 States Sue DeVos to Overturn Anti-Student Rule
The attorneys general of 22 states and the District of Columbia today sued Betsy DeVos over the Trump administration’s new borrower defense rule, a regulation that would make it virtually impossible for defrauded students to get their federal loan obligations cancelled, even though a federal statute provides that right. The lawsuit, filed in federal court
Continue Reading >>>
More Proof of DeVos Department Deception in DCEH Debacle
We reported last week that Betsy DeVos’s Department of Education is pursuing penalties against Higher Learning Commission (HLC) over that agency’s 2017 action to suspend accreditation of two career college campuses newly acquired by Dream Center Education Holdings (DCEH). The DeVos move appears aimed at deflecting evidence that the Department engaged in an improper effort
Continue Reading >>>
DeVos Advances Trump-Like Vendetta Against College Accreditor
Betsy DeVos’s Department of Education is pursuing punishment of a college accrediting agency — an action that looks like a Trump-like vendetta and a means of deflecting charges that the Department and a controversial college chain were caught conspiring to cover up abuses. A new Department of Education staff report claims that the accreditor, Higher
Continue Reading >>>
Trump Administration Slams Student Veterans Once Again
In 2016, candidate Donald Trump repeatedly promised to aid America’s veterans, but for the second time in about a month, the Trump administration has taken a step that will severely harm veterans seeking to improve their lives through higher education. Today, the Department of Veterans Affairs reversed its suspensions from eligibility for G.I. Bill funding
Continue Reading >>>