The main trade association of for-profit colleges, APSCU, seems to exist for the purpose of protecting the worst, most abusive, most predatory conduct by its member companies. Why else would the association, once again last week, attack the U.S. Department of Education for seeking to implement a law that simply requires career colleges that receive federal aid to actually train students to earn a living? Why else would it send its CEO to offer wholly incredible comments before a Senate committee? And what was General Wesley Clark doing speaking at APSCU’s annual convention?
APSCU and members of the for-profit college …
Corinthian Colleges announced today that Leon Panetta, until recently the U.S. Secretary of Defense, and Marc Morial, President and CEO of the National Urban League, have joined the for-profit college company’s board of directors. In a field marked by ripoffs of students and taxpayers, Corinthian, which operates under the school names Everest, Heald, and Wyotech, has one of the worst records of all. The willingness of these two men to lend their credibility to Corinthian, which feeds off taxpayer money and often leaves its students worse off than when they started, is dismaying, to say the least.
Panetta …
Last year, the annual convention of owners and executives of for-profit colleges (University of Phoenix, The Art Institutes, Kaplan, etc.), held in Las Vegas, featured paid speakers George W. Bush and Michelle Rhee, and, for entertainment, a fake knockoff version of Creedence Clearwater Revival. After a year in which the truth about their shoddy practices finally sent many for-profit colleges into a tailspin, they will gather again in June in Orlando. This year’s meeting of their trade association, APSCU, will feature: former Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels (R); retired Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen; …
Last year, President Obama warned our military servicemembers that some for-profit colleges “aren’t interested in helping you…. They are interested in getting the money.” He called the schools’ conduct “disgraceful” and told the troops that these schools are “trying to swindle and hoodwink you.” Holly Petraeus, who directs service member affairs at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has said that for-profit colleges “see service members as nothing more than dollar signs in uniform.” Senator Tom Harkin has issued an extensive report documenting how for-profit colleges use deceptive and coercive recruiting tactics to lure our troops and veterans into …
Several years of public scrutiny have exposed that many of America’s for-profit colleges are playing a cruel joke on students and taxpayers — high-priced, low-quality programs, sold through deceptive recruiting practices, that often leave students without good jobs and deep in debt. This scam has cost taxpayers as much as $33 billion in a single year. Worse, it has ruined the lives of students — veterans, single mothers, and others struggling to build a better future. For-profit colleges have 12 percent of U.S. college students but a shocking 47 percent of student loan defaults.
When the Obama Administration sought to implement common sense …
In the past two years, as the public has come to recognize that many for-profit colleges have been ripping off taxpayers and ruining students’ lives, enrollments have declined, and the once-mighty industry has gone into a tailspin. A number of schools, such as American Career Institute and ATI have abruptly shut down many or all of their campuses, leaving students out in the cold, their futures uncertain. The biggest companies in the sector, including the University of Phoenix, Career Education Corp., EDMC, Corinthian Colleges, and Washington Post-owned Kaplan, have downsized as their revenues and share prices have sharply …
Representative Virginia Foxx (R-NC) yesterday paraphrased a well-known quote about the Holocaust to describe the Obama Administration’s regulation of for-profit colleges. Foxx, who has staunchly defended the for-profit college industry despite its blatant record of abusing students and ripping off taxpayers, apparently didn’t mention in her remarks that she is one of Congress’s biggest recipients of campaign cash from that industry.
Inside Higher Ed reports that Foxx, speaking to the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities on Tuesday, suggested to the leaders of those private, non-profit colleges that they should have actively opposed new rules proposed by the Obama …Continue Reading »
A for-profit college suddenly shut down all its campuses last week, leaving Massachusetts and Maryland students out in the cold. The owner of the company, American Career Institute (ACI), told me today that the business is closed for good, because its lenders forced it to shut. Although we don’t know all the facts yet, ACI’s abrupt demise appears to be another window into how lax standards in the for-profit college industry can harm students and taxpayers.
On January 9, ACI sent a letter informing students that, due to financial problems, all of its campuses would close immediately. ACI had campuses in Columbia, Silver …
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