March 18, 2024

Congress Should Reject Bill To Let Private Groups Control Access To U.S. Laws

Last summer, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chair of the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Jerry Nadler (NY), the committee’s ranking Democrat, offered at a committee meeting legislation called the PRO Codes Act, as part of a package of three bills they declared to be common sense bipartisan measures. But after the committee adopted the other
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March 18, 2024

U of Idaho President Pressed Alumni Group To Hire Lobbyist for Phoenix Deal

At the urging of University of Idaho president C. Scott Green, the school’s alumni association recently hired a lobbyist whose duties have included trying to persuade state legislators not to thwart Green’s plan for his school to acquire the for-profit giant University of Phoenix. The proposed deal to spend $685 million to buy Phoenix, a
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March 14, 2024

Former Administrators of University of Antelope Valley, a For-Profit, Allege Financial Aid Fraud

Kevin Hoover uncovered problems soon after taking a job as the University of Antelope Valley’s executive financial aid director. He arrived at the California for-profit institution in December 2022, but said in an interview that he discovered misconduct had been occurring for a few years.  Students routinely did not receive federal financial aid refunds to
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March 7, 2024

Is the FTC Investigating U of Phoenix Again? Idahoans Deserve An Answer.

The University of Idaho’s proposed $685 million deal to buy the for-profit University of Phoenix is becoming increasingly controversial in the state of Idaho.  It could get even more controversial if it turns out, as might well be the case, that the University of Phoenix, which has a long history of predatory practices and resulting
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March 6, 2024

Education Department Needs Stronger Rules for Accreditors

I’m scheduled to offer a brief public comment at today’s session of the Department of Education’s negotiating rulemaking meetings, where representatives of various higher education constituencies have come together to debate new proposed regulations governing issues including distance education, state government authorization of schools, and standards for the private accrediting bodies that oversee schools.  My
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March 1, 2024

Idaho House Committee Votes Against U. of Phoenix Deal

The Idaho House State Affairs Committee today voted unanimously for a resolution urging the Idaho State Board of Education to reconsider the deal for the University of Idaho to acquire the for-profit University of Phoenix, and authorizing the Legislature to sue if necessary to stop the purchase. The vote came just a day after University
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February 29, 2024

Concerns Mount in Idaho Over U. of Phoenix Deal

When three U.S. senators — Dick Durbin (D-IL), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) — wrote last fall to C. Scott Green, the president of the University of Idaho, to raise concerns about that state school’s plan to buy, for $685 million, the giant for-profit University of Phoenix, they received a hostile letter from
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February 28, 2024

Advisory Panel Ratifies Education Dept.’s Weak Decision on Accreditor’s Failed Oversight of Corrupt College

  At its meeting today, NACIQI, the U.S. Department of Education’s outside advisory committee on accreditation policy, voted 12-2, after a debate, to endorse the Department staff recommendation of a 29-month renewal of recognition for accreditor Council on Occupational Education (COE). The opposing votes came from NACIQI vice chair Zakiya Smith Ellis, who was formerly
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