Antitrust comes to campus

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Aug 05, 2024 View in browser   By Juan Perez Jr. Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Doha Mekki of the Antitrust Division speaks at a news conference at the Justice Department on March 7, 2023 in Washington, D.C. | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images TRUST-BUSTING EDUCATION — The Justice Department’s antitrust team is keeping its sights on the education industry in the waning days of President Joe Biden’s administration. — The issue is personal for Doha Mekki, the principal deputy assistant attorney general of the DOJ's antitrust division. Born in Sudan, the 38-year-old political asylee’s mother came to the United States to escape a repressive regime and pursue a doctorate degree. Education — whether at an elite college, trade school or state university — is often Americans’ first step towards economic opportunity, Mekki notes. — “But it is a sad fact that today paying for an education is increasingly expensive, and it's increasingly out of reach for a lot of Americans,” Mekki said during a recent conversation with Weekly Education. — Federal trustbusters want to ensure no single company wields outsized power over consumers’ choices and that firms do not collude to control the marketplace. That not only matters when shoppers choose between airlines, jobs, or smartphones; it also counts when they pursue a degree or credential. — Now top DOJ attorneys are promoting the links between antitrust laws, classrooms and campuses. — Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter, during remarks last week to a federal “strike force” on unfair pricing, noted the department backed a price-fixing lawsuit against elite colleges and universities, and the administration’s recent challenge to the NCAA’s restrictions on college athlete transfers. The DOJ has also investigated whether private schools in the Washington, D.C., region collectively decided to eliminate Advanced Placement courses from their curricula, and sued a college admissions counseling giant.  — “Antitrust enforcement plays a really important role in making sure that education, however you define it, is both available to all Americans and affordable for Americans,” Mekki said. “I feel that very acutely, and I think this issue is resonant, particularly as we think about the student loan crisis and the sort of multifaceted way that the administration has sought to combat serious problems related to student loan debt and college affordability.” IT’S MONDAY, AUG. 5. WELCOME TO WEEKLY EDUCATION. Vice President Kamala Harris is already starting to break with the party’s left flank. She has already staked out positions on a pair of key issues — climate and abortion policy — that buck progressives who hoped she would go further than President Joe Biden. Reach out with tips to today’s host at jperez@politico.com and also my colleagues Becca Carballo (rcarballo@politico.com), Bianca Quilantan (bquilantan@politico.com) and Mackenzie Wilkes (mwilkes@politico.com). Want to receive this newsletter every weekday? Subscribe to POLITICO Pro. You’ll also receive daily policy news and other intelligence you need to act on the day’s biggest stories. Antitrust U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, with then-Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta, at right, and Antitrust Division Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Doha Mekki, at left, listens to a question after announcing an antitrust enforcement action on March 7, 2023, at the Justice Department in Washington, D.C. | Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images WHAT’S NEXT? — Your host chatted with Mekki to discuss her views on the future of college athletics and the bipartisan appeal of antitrust enforcement. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. The NCAA and colleges want to finalize a court settlement to offer nearly $3 billion in back damages to athletes and give schools the option to share some revenue with future players. Would this settlement be enough to resolve the NCAA's antitrust problems? The big question right now is where do we go from here? There have been a lot of lawsuits that have been filed and a lot of challenges to the NCAA’s rules. Ultimately, that's not a question we're going to have to answer here at the Justice Department where we're just law enforcers. We're calling balls and strikes. We're trying to follow potential antitrust violations and make sure people who are hurt by antitrust violations are getting justice and redress. Ultimately, questions of the law affecting these issues are going to go to Congress. That's our constitutional structure and that's a good thing. But also the NCAA itself has a lot of agency. It promotes these rules. It can decide whether it is going to reform itself and become an organization that is antitrust compliant, or take a different path. Ultimately that is up to the NCAA. There’s a myriad of issues where antitrust intersects with the higher education space. How do you bring people together to address some of these problems and figure out solutions? We are always in a dead sprint to use every minute we have to do the most good we can. We're following the facts and the law when it comes to our enforcement, but we also have a big public advocacy mission. We can offer technical assistance to Congress or state legislatures, file amicus briefs in the federal and state courts to help advocate for the proper interpretation of the laws, we can talk with members of the public about the problems they are facing. We can't quite do it all. We wish that we could. But it's not for lack of trying and we're going to use every minute that we are privileged to be in these roles to advocate for antitrust, which accrues to every American’s economic liberty. Do you get the sense this work is something that, no matter the administration, the government will continue to pursue? One thing that I saw across two very different administrations is that antitrust was enjoying renewed and sustained prominence for people of all stripes without regard to political affiliation. That is welcome news as someone who hates culture war issues and hates divisiveness. Antitrust is a place to make sure that there's dispersion of economic opportunity and dispersion of power. It's anyone's guess where we are going. But certainly I think there are ways in which antitrust and its values that are really enshrined in the Constitution itself kind of rhyme and go hand in hand. It's certainly my hope that even if people make different decisions about what's an antitrust violation, that antitrust will continue to be a beacon of unity, opportunity and hope for a lot of people. Unions SHAPIRO SKEPTICISM — United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain labeled Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s support for school vouchers as a point of “struggle” for labor unions on Sunday, marking a notable bit of veepstakes criticism while national labor leaders have opted against public opposition to Vice President Kamala Harris’ potential running mates. — “One of the bigger ones is the school vouchers, obviously,” Fain told “Face the Nation” on Sunday when asked to identify issues of concern to unions. — “Public education … It's been under attack under the Republican administrations forever, but they want to pass vouchers so that the rich people can subsidize their kids’ educations and then the working class kids can get excluded because there’s no guarantee we can go to those schools,” Fain said. “That’s one of the bigger issues we see with Shapiro.” — Fain instead praised Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, describing the Democratic governors as his top two choices to round out the Democratic presidential ticket behind Harris. — But but but: Fain said selecting Shapiro would not make it more difficult to convince union members to vote for Harris. “And ultimately we know this, Kamala Harris is for labor. She’s for working class people,” Fain argued. Campaigns ON THE AIRWAVES — Advocates are pushing Congress to prioritize child care policy through a multimillion-dollar ad campaign that will target 13 congressional districts and 12 states. — First Five Action’s campaign of local television buys, digital ads and direct mail will direct some of its heaviest investments toward voters in Pennsylvania and Nebraska. — The initiative is described by the group as the only national advocacy campaign solely focused on child care and early learning issues that is not tied to a particular candidate or party. — “Parents are struggling to find and afford quality child care. Working families are having to make incredibly tough choices. And employers are navigating this right alongside working parents,” First Five Action board President Sarah Rittling said in a statement. “We are committed to elevating this issue to ensure that working families, employers, and kids receive the support they need.” Report Roundup — A new paper from the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center concluded that higher education’s “sticker prices” have increased 114 percent since 1993, but net tuition prices have not changed after accounting for increases in financial aid and tax benefits. Nevertheless, over the same period, student borrowing tripled. Syllabus — He skipped college to become a repairman. He’s on his way to $175,000 a year: The Wall Street Journal — Could Tim Walz go from teaching history to being part of it? The Washington Post — Inspector general finds gaps in FAFSA planning and oversight: Inside Higher Ed — Black and Hispanic voters say Democrats aren’t focused enough on K-12 education: The 74 — Voters become more polarized when presidential candidates take positions on issues in K-12 education: The Conversation   Follow us on Twitter Delece Smith-Barrow @DeleceWrites Rebecca Carballo @Becca_Carballo Bianca Quilantan @biancaquilan Juan Perez Jr. @PerezJr Mackenzie Wilkes @macwilkes   Follow us

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