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.
Feds Cancel Debts for 261,000 Students of Disgraced School Now Run by U. of Arizona
The Biden Department of Education announced today it has approved $4.5 billion in loan debt cancellation for 261,000 borrowers who attended for-profit Ashford University between March 2009 and April 2020. It also announced it would seek to ban Andrew Clark, the CEO of Ashford’s demised parent company, Zovio, from contracting with the federal government. The
Continue Reading >>>
Education Department Cancels Debts for Students Who Attended Disgraced CEHE Schools
At the start of President Biden’s last week in office, U.S. Department of Education Miguel Cardona this morning announced a new student debt relief package that includes automatic debt cancellation for 73,600 borrowers who attended any school owned by the Utah-based Center for Excellence in Higher Education between 2006 and the school chain’s collapse in
Continue Reading >>>
Owners of Shuttered For-Profit Hussian College Sue ex-CEO, Charging Embezzlement
The owners of shuttered for-profit Hussian College have sued the school’s former president and CEO, Jeremiah Staropoli, seeking $162 million in damages and penalties and claiming that Staropoli and close associates in the company embezzled funds and then conspired to cover up the alleged misdeeds. On September 5, father-and-son Hussian owners David and Joshua Figuli
Continue Reading >>>
Idaho High Court Rejects Secret Meetings on U of Phoenix Deal
The Idaho Supreme Court today ruled, in a 4-1 decision, that a lower court erred when it ratified the University of Idaho’s sneaky concealment of its deal to buy the predatory for-profit University of Phoenix. The ruling is one more indicator that this deal is a mistake, and Idahoans should reject it. Here’s more, from
Continue Reading >>>
Trump Wants Musk to Cut Waste, Fraud, and Abuse. Start With Taxpayer-Funded Scam Colleges.
I spoke today at a Capitol Hill press event organized by the Debt Collective. Other speakers, who included senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Ed Markey (D-MA), Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA), and Ashley Pizzuti and Valerie Scott, two of the student borrowers who organized the event, properly focused on the urgency of the Biden administration cancelling
Continue Reading >>>
FTC and California AG Have Been Investigating Online College Provider 2U
Struggling online program management operation 2U has this year been under investigation by both the Federal Trade Commission and California’s attorney general, filings in federal bankruptcy court reveal. Maryland-based 2U, which has faced scrutiny and lawsuits over alleged deceptive practices and has struggled with heavy debt, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in federal court in
Continue Reading >>>
AG Pick Bondi Dropped Trump University Probe, But Pursued Keiser University
Donald Trump’s second-choice pick for attorney general, Pam Bondi, in 2013 received from Trump a $25,000 donation for a political action committee supporting her campaign to be re-elected as Florida’s attorney general — just days after a Bondi spokesperson told the media that her office was reviewing a lawsuit brought by New York’s attorney general
Continue Reading >>>
Accreditor ACCSC Again Grants Maximum Renewal To Troubled For-Profit Colleges
College accreditor ACCSC has renewed approval of four for-profit colleges owned by California-based International Education Corp. (IEC), a company that was forced to shut down many of its campuses in the past year after a U.S. Department of Education investigation revealed the schools were rigging student entrance exams and engaging in other fraudulent conduct. By
Continue Reading >>>