Shireman served as deputy under-secretary of the Department of Education for about 18 months from 2009 to 2011. He created an income-based loan-repayment plan, helped simplify federal financial aid forms for higher education, and led the department's transition to fund all student loans directly instead of guaranteeing loans offered by private-sector institutions. Shireman was also the moving force behind the revised gainful employment rule implemented in 2011 that was later overturned via judicial review. The gainful employment ruled championed by Shireman, was overturned by judicial review in 2012 because of its arbitrary nature.
TICAS
Before his time at the Department of Education, Shireman served as the president of The Institute for College Access and Success. Shireman founded this organization with Lauren Asher in 2005. Shireman was serving as president of TICAS when he left to join the Obama administration in 2009. Shireman was immediately hired as an outside consultant by the Department of Education after he left in 2011. As of 2014, Shireman headed another education related-group, California Competes.
Ethics investigation
found emails that show Shireman and other officials at the Department of Education were in touch with Steve Eisman and other short-sellers regarding proposed regulations relevant to for-profit schools. In 2011, CREW asked the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and the Secretary of Education to open investigations based on those emails. This resulted in the opening of an inspector general investigation in 2011. As of 2014, that investigation was still on-going. In 2014, CREW made additional information requests to the Department of Education and the University of California to learn about the extent and nature of Shireman's influence over education policy in those institutions. In March 2014, United States District Judge Amy B. Jackson ordered TICAS to release emails related to Shireman and California Competes to the IG investigation. TICAS aggressively resisted producing the emails in question. Among other issues, investigators from the Department of Education and lawyers for the Department of Justice are trying to find out if Shireman's communications with TICAS from February 2009 to February 2011 violated conflict-of-interest rules or ethics laws.
