September 6, 2019

Report Highlights Decline In Quality at Troubled Career Education Corp.

A new report from the research firm Capitol Forum documents evidence that educational quality has declined significantly in recent years at the colleges operated by for-profit Career Education Corporation (CEC). The report relies on statistical analysis and also interviews with former CEC employees. When Todd Nelson became CEC’s CEO in 2015, the school already had
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January 3, 2019

Career Education Corp., Tied to DeVos Aides, Pays Millions to Settle State Claims of Illegal Practices

For-profit college chain Career Education Corp., a company closely tied to top officials of the Betsy DeVos Department of Education, announced today it has settled with the attorneys general of 48 states and the District of Columbia a law enforcement investigation that the state AGs have been pursuing since 2014, focusing on CEC’s abusive and
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November 20, 2017

Ex-Bush Official Hansen Joins Board of Predatory For-Profit College Chain CEC, And It Makes Sense

A tangled web of for-profit connections adds up to more bad news for struggling students. For-profit college chain Career Education Corporation (CEC) announced last week that William D. Hansen has joined the company’s board of directors. It’s a disturbing validation by Hansen, a former top Department of Education official under George W. Bush, of a predatory
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May 28, 2016

A Dubious Benefit: Big Employers Steer Workers to Troubled For-Profit Colleges

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American Airlines tells its workers that one of the employee benefits for which they are eligible is “career development training,” and an internal employee benefits web page lists American’s “learning partners and other sources for tuition discounts, waived enrollment fees and education grants to help you further develop your professional skills.” The schools listed by the company
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July 14, 2015

Big For-Profit Colleges Quit Trade Group APSCU

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Some of the largest for-profit college companies — including, last month, DeVry and Kaplan — have recently left the industry’s main trade group, the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities (APSCU). The defections have come amid a rapid decline in the reputations and fortunes of many for-profit colleges — and the apparent failure of
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November 12, 2014

Scam: Websites Promising Jobs And Medicaid Are Instead Bait for For-Profit College Telemarketers

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A network of U.S. marketing companies run glossy websites promising jobs, health benefits, food stamps, and heating assistance, sites with names like localemploymentnetwork.org or medicaidinsurancebenefits.com. But according to former employees of a company connected to these operations, the real purpose of these sites is a classic bait-and-switch: to get low-income people, single mothers, veterans, and unemployed older people on the
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December 12, 2013

Steve Forbes, The Olympics, Congress and Other Stuff For-Profit Colleges Buy With Your Tax Dollars

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America’s for-profit colleges are receiving as much as $33 billion in a single year from your tax money, and billions more from the pockets of students, a lot of whom are left deep in debt and jobless from their encounters with predatory schools.  Many of the biggest for-profit colleges get close to 90 percent of
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November 18, 2013

Finally, A Chance To Curb the Abuses of For-Profit Colleges

Outside the room where the Department of Education holds its rulemaking sessions. Two of past three Assistant Secretaries for Post-Secondary Education later became lobbyists for for-profit colleges.

This morning, in a packed room on the 8th floor of a K Street building, the U.S. Department of Education resumes talks in pursuit of a “gainful employment” rule aimed at penalizing for-profit colleges that leave students deep in debt and without decent paying jobs. It’s called a “negotiated rulemaking,” bringing together representatives of schools, students,
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