ASU+GSV Panel Transcript on TPS

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At the ASU+GSV conference two weeks ago I participated in a panel discussion on the TPS Dear Colleague Letter, which occurred just after the infamous blog post that pulled back on the guidance. Joining me on the panel were Tyton Partners Managing Director Mike Goldstein, Cooley LLP Special Counsel Katherine Lee Carey, Mainstay CTO Toby Jackson, and Achieve Partners Managing Director Ryan Craig.

You will see that Mike and I did not see eye-to-eye on all topics (or the semantics of correction vs. difference in opinion), although we were both critical of the TPS guidance and process. One valuable nugget from Mike that aligns with what I’ve heard:

Panelists also agreed that we should expect revised guidance in the next few months - the TPS issue is not going way nor will it wait on a structured negotiated rule making process. But enough teasers - you can find the full video of the panel at the ASU+GSV site and the transcript below.

Ryan: There's a lot to say here, so we're going to get going. Thank you. The few, the proud, the enlightened. So I'm joined here on this panel by Toby Jackson, who's the CTO of Mainstay Kate Carey from Cooley, Mike Goldstein from Tyton, and Phil Hill, who's been sort of narrating this drama over the past couple of months. And I just want to start by thanking I'm Ryan Craig, and I want to start by thanking the Department of Education for putting in motion a unique constellation of events that has allowed a dream to come true for me, which I've always wanted to start a panel with The question, What the hell just happened? And so here we here we are with that question. So I'm going to start with Phil, who really has been the sort of chronicling the history of this. So on February the 15th, something happened. What was it?

Phil: So [00:01:00] a quick summary of it is there was a notice that was tied to the notice about comment period for bundled services exception, which deals with OPMs. And then they added a new Dear Colleague letter that dealt with third party servicers which prior to this had been defined and understood clearly to be companies that handle financial aid so directly involved in financial aid processing. The new Dear Colleague letter that we're talking about and that you're here for. So I won't say too much about it, drastically expanded the definition of that to instead of just being those who worked on Title IV programs, as in on financial aid, it expanded it to any educational program that was eligible for financial aid. And then if you follow the logic through it, it captured the vast majority of the EdTech industry, and that led to existing guidance and regulations on third party servicers, including [00:02:00] non foreign ownership. You couldn't have ownership outside or operation outside of the US and a whole host of what I would consider as unintended consequences. So there was a Dear Colleague letter that did a drastic expansion of it that came out on February 15th.

Ryan: So what? Let's go. Mike. So what?

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