October 29, 2015

McCain Lashes Out At Durbin, Defends Veteran-Abusing For-Profit Colleges

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Senator John McCain (R-AZ), in a speech on the Senate floor yesterday afternoon, charged that fellow Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) has “orchestrated” a “shameful … vendetta against for-profit universities.” McCain upped the ante by asserting that Durbin has a “well-known record of not supporting the men and women who are serving in the military.” Alleging a larger conspiracy,
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October 22, 2015

McCain, Alexander Press DoD To Back Off Probe of U. of Phoenix, Their Donor

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Republican Senators John McCain (AZ), Jeff Flake (AZ), and Lamar Alexander (TN) wrote today to Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter calling on him to “reconsider” the Department’s decision to put the largest for-profit college, the University of Phoenix, on probation for alleged violations in recruiting U.S. military service members. All three Senators have received significant
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October 20, 2015

For-Profit College Owner, Who Used Strippers As Lure, Goes On Trial

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Alejandro Amor (pictured just above), the former owner-CEO of for-profit FastTrain College, is scheduled to face a jury trial in Miami Wednesday morning. Amor and his co-defendant, former FastTrain admissions staffer Anthony Mincey, face criminal charges of defrauding the federal government to obtain about $6.5 million in student aid — Pell grants and Direct Loans. Two other FastTrain employees charged
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October 16, 2015

Climate Denier Response to WSJ Story Revealing Coal Payments: (1) Dog Ate Homework (2) I’m A Lawyer

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Professional climate change denier Christopher Horner offered some interesting responses to the Wall Street Journal when it asked about a court filing indicating that Horner had received $18,600 this year from coal company Alpha Natural Resources before it filed for bankruptcy in August. Initially, yesterday’s Journal story stated that Horner did not respond to a request
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October 14, 2015

Purveyors of Wisdom on Higher Ed Panel Have Advanced Harmful For-Profit College Agenda

Today, the day after the New York Times ran a blockbuster front-page lead story describing some of the worst ongoing abuses of big for-profit colleges, one of the nation’s leading higher education philanthropies kicked off a major conference in Washington with a panel giving its place of honor to the retired former chairman of the House of
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October 12, 2015

Group Holding Bipartisan Presidential Debate Today is Dominated by Corporate Lobbyists

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The non-profit group No Labels held an unusual candidate forum this morning in New Hampshire. The “No Labels Problem Solver Convention” featured five Republicans plus three Democrats — including Donald Trump, Chris Christie, John Kasich, Bernie Sanders, and Martin O’Malley — all at the same event. No Labels has been organizing on the ground in primary states,
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October 8, 2015

For-Profit Colleges Enlist Capitol Hill Supplicants, US Chamber In Renewed Push Against Obama Rule

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The for-profit college’s trade association, APSCU, was once mighty but is now hobbled, discredited, and depleted. Yet the group, and its industry, still have the money — most it from taxpayer-funded student aid to its schools —  to lobby, give campaign contributions to politicians, and hire lawyers to fight its biggest piece of Kryptonite: the
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October 6, 2015

For-Profit Colleges Appear to Use Random WASP College Name Generator

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Yesterday, Birmingham, Alabama-based for-profit college company Education Corporation of America (ECA) announced the new name for the campuses, until now called Kaplan College, that it recently bought from Graham Holdings Company. The schools will henceforth be known as “Brightwood College.” Are the schools to be named after New England education pioneer Jebediah Brightwood?  Nope. It appears that there
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