The Education Department has been increasing pressure on the multibillion-dollar career-training industry, responding to complaints that some for-profit colleges burden students with debt and leave them without promised skills and jobs.

On Tuesday, the department got a pushback. The owner of a chain of colleges, the Center for Excellence in Higher Education, filed an unusual lawsuit in federal court accusing education officials of pursuing a political agenda. The suit argues that the department is trying to put the colleges out of business by failing to classify them as nonprofit educational institutions, curbing their access to federal student aid dollars.

The department declined to comment on the suit.

Created in 2006 as a charity dedicated to promoting free-market principles throughout the higher education industry, the Center for Excellence bought several colleges, including Stevens-Henager, California College and CollegeAmerica, six years later from their founder, Carl B. Barney. Nearly all of the money for the $636 million purchase came from donations and loans made by Mr. Barney, an entrepreneur and ardent devotee of the capitalist evangelist Ayn Rand.

In buying the for-profit chain, the Center for Excellence restructured itself as a tax-exempt, nonprofit educational corporation with Mr. Barney as chairman. The Internal Revenue Service approved the designation, but this month the Education Department refused to recognize the center’s nonprofit status for the purposes of receiving federal grants and loans, arguing that the deal was an effort to circumvent stricter government regulation.