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.
College Rebuked Today By Education Dept. Is Suing Ex-Employee Who Complained to Accreditor
As we reported this morning, the U.S. Department of Education today rejected the request of the CollegeAmerica/Stevens-Henager college chain to have its status changed from for-profit to non-profit for purposes of federal financial aid rules. The Department concluded that the chain’s conversion to non-profit status appeared primarily to benefit the for-profit chain’s owner, Carl Barney, rather
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Department of Education Rejects For-Profit College Chain’s Conversion to Non-Profit
In a critical decision to protect students and taxpayers from fraud and abuse in higher education, the U.S. Department of Education this morning rejected the request of the CollegeAmerica / Stevens-Henager college chain to have its status changed from for-profit to non-profit for purposes of federal financial aid rules. The Department concluded that the chain’s
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Twist: DeVry Goes to Court To Stop Students From Bringing Arbitration
For years, DeVry University, like other big for-profit colleges, forced its students to sign agreements that they would take any dispute with the school to private arbitration, rather than sue in court. When, this year, it appeared that the U.S. Department of Education was moving in the direction of banning or limiting such mandatory arbitration agreements
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For-Profit Colleges Say Students Are Being Defrauded (By Someone Else)
The for-profit colleges’ depleted trade group CECU (formerly APSCU) reports in a new filing with the government a seemingly remarkable fact: Last month, the association wrote a letter to the Department of Education, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau demanding that those agencies fight against scam websites run by shady outfits
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Obama’s Last Chance to Protect Students & Taxpayers From Predatory Colleges
This is the comment (pdf) I submitted today to the Department of Education regarding new rules aimed at protecting students and taxpayers from deceptive practices and other abuses by unscrupulous colleges. Secretary John B. King, Jr. ,U.S. Department of Education Re: Docket ID ED-2015-OPE-0103 Dear Secretary King: I thank you and the Department
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Industry’s Top Lobbyist: Stop “Assaults” On For-Profit Colleges
Steve Gunderson, the former congressman (R-WI) who is the chief lobbyist for America’s for-profit colleges, warns in a new email, “There has never been a time when the economic, regulatory and political assaults on our sector have been stronger.” Gunderson, since 2012 the CEO of the discredited, depleted for-profit college trade group CECU (formerly APSCU),
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For-Profit Colleges Use Distortions to Enlist Students to Oppose Obama Rules
Steve Gunderson, the former congressman (R-WI), who heads the discredited, depleted for-profit college trade group CECU (formerly APSCU), is working hard to defeat a new Obama Administration rule that would (1) provide debt relief for students who were defrauded by their schools and (2) take steps to hold fraudulent schools accountable. In addition to efforts
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For-Profit Colleges Press Traditional Colleges To Oppose Obama Rules
The for-profit college industry clearly is spending heavily to try to convince non-profit and public colleges to oppose new Department of Education regulations imposing accountability on badly-performing schools. Last week I wrote about how the industry has hired a former long-time New York Times reporter to try to argue to traditional higher education groups that
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