About: David Halperin
Twitter: @DaHalperin
Bio: David Halperin is the co-founder and editor of Republic Report. Halperin, a self-employed lawyer based in Washington DC, engages in public advocacy, investigative work, and legal representation on a wide range of issues, including higher education, climate change, democracy, corruption, open government, and national security. He also advises organizations and companies on strategy, policy, communications, and legal matters. He is of counsel to Public.Resource.org, a non-profit focused on making legal and government materials available for free to the public.
Halperin’s investigative and advocacy work on predatory for-profit colleges since 2010 has spurred reforms in policy and regulations, triggered law enforcement investigations, and led to the closure of numerous deceptive schools.
Halperin was from 2004 until 2012 the founding director of Campus Progress and senior vice president at the Center for American Progress. Before that, he was: senior policy advisor for Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential campaign; founding executive director of the American Constitution Society; White House speechwriter and special assistant for national security affairs to President Clinton; co-founder of the Internet company Progressive Networks (now called RealNetworks); counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee; law clerk to U.S. District Judge Gerhard A. Gesell (D.D.C.); research assistant to Robert S. McNamara; and research analyst at the Arms Control Association.
Halperin has represented clients in the U.S. Supreme Court and various state and federal courts. Among many other efforts, Halperin helped represent Greenpeace in an unprecedented 2004 Miami criminal jury trial over protest activity, resulting in a directed verdict of acquittal; aided climate groups facing investigation by the House Science Committee during 2015-16; and represented Public Resource in landmark copyright litigation from 2012 to 2024 over efforts to make federal regulations publicly available online without charge.
Halperin writes at Republic Report, and his articles also have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, The Nation, Politico, Slate, Foreign Policy, and other outlets. In recent years he has testified before the House Oversight Committee and at several federal agencies, and he has spoken at major conferences and events across the country. Halperin has served since 2007 on the board of directors of Public Citizen.
Halperin graduated from Yale College and Yale Law School.
Questioned by Education Dept., Accreditor ACCSC Attacked Its Critics
Faced with a directive from the U.S. Department of Education to defend its oversight of collapsed predatory college operation Center For Excellence in Higher Education (CEHE), the head of the accrediting agency ACCSC sharply attacked critics, saying their arguments were made “negligently” and were “unsupported by even a scintilla of the evidence.” The fiery response,
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Education Dept. Deal Ousts CEO Who Ran Florida Career College
The U.S. Department of Education has reached a deal with California-based International Education Corp. (IEC) that requires the “separation” from the company of its CEO, as well as its chief financial officer. The agreement, posted this morning on the Department’s website, also finalizes the termination of federal aid to IEC’s troubled for-profit Florida Career College
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Investor Report Highlights Abuses At Adtalem and Walden
A report released Tuesday by investment firm Safkhet Capital details predatory abuses at — and financial and regulatory perils now faced by — the for-profit college company Adtalem Global Education. Safkhet is headed by Fahmi Quadir, who has been nicknamed “The Assassin” for her record of aggressively targeting companies, notably Valeant Pharmaceuticals, whose stock she
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For-Profit College Operation Perdoceo Fails to Halt Fraud Lawsuit
Seeking dismissal of a lawsuit alleging that it abused students and defrauded taxpayers, the for-profit college company Perdoceo Education Corp. argued that a whistleblower’s allegations were stale because the same assertions were already made public — including in two articles published here on Republic Report. Unfortunately for Perdoceo, the federal judge hearing the case concluded
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Annals of State University Presidents Getting Suckered Into Buying Scam For-Profit Colleges
Email from Andrew Clark, the CEO of predatory for-profit Ashford University, to Robert Robbins, the president of actual University of Arizona, prior to merger: “Bobby… I’d like to begin developing a personal relationship with you and understand your vision for online learning at UofA.” C. Scott Green, president of actual University of Idaho, explaining in
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Florida Career College Says It’s Closing
Florida Career College, a chain of schools that offered programs in health care, business, and other fields but faced a cutoff of federal aid following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Education, announced this morning that it is shutting down for good. Addressing a meeting of the Florida state Commission on Independent Education this
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Cosmetology Schools Sue to Void Rule Aimed at Protecting Students From Heavy Debt
On December 22, the trade association American Association of Cosmetology Schools, along with Texas-based DuVall’s School of Cosmetology, sued the U.S. Department of Education, seeking to void the federal “gainful employment” rule, which aims to hold accountable those for-profit and career college programs that consistently leave graduates with debts they cannot afford to repay. After
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Predatory Colleges, Converted To Non-Profit, Are Failing
About a dozen years ago, owners of some of the biggest, worst-acting for-profit colleges began concocting, with their eager, high-paid lawyers, schemes to convert their schools into non-profits. The apparent aims were to evade the heightened government regulations applied uniquely to for-profit schools in order to guard against waste, fraud, and abuse — and to
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