The for-profit college industry is under pressure. Many of its biggest companies are being investigated by federal agencies and state attorneys general for fraud and misrepresentation — deceiving students, regulators, and investors about job placement rates, costs and quality of programs, transferability of credits, and other matters. Enrollments are down, and share prices have been
Continue Reading >>>

The Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities, or APSCU, is the Washington, DC-based lobbying group for America’s for-profit colleges. APSCU has opposed a wide range of reasonable efforts by the Obama Administration and Members of Congress to hold bad actors in its industry accountable for waste, fraud, and abuse with the roughly $32 billion
Continue Reading >>>

After several years of startling revelations about its predatory abuses of students, the for-profit college industry faces growing skepticism from the public. Thousands of students across the country have complained that they were deceived by for-profit college recruiters about the cost of programs, the quality of programs, and the value of  for-profit degrees in the
Continue Reading >>>

The images above depict a life of glitzy charity events and socializing with the rich and famous. It’s the life of  Arthur E. Benjamin of Delray Beach, FL, and Dallas, TX. According to his website, Arthur Benjamin is an “Internationally Recognized Educator, Corporate Leader, Philanthropist and Animal Rights Activist.”  He “has been dedicating himself to
Continue Reading >>>

Because the media loves discussing Donald Trump, it wasn’t surprising to see heavy press coverage of a lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman accusing the unlicensed Trump University of “persistent fraudulent, illegal and deceptive conduct.”  Trump responded by harshly attacking Schneiderman, whose suit demands that Trump pay back at least $40 million
Continue Reading >>>

The Internet loves infographics. So websites seeking clicks are always looking to run infographics, and marketers are always seeking to supply websites with infographics — infographics that steer people to their products. Yesterday, super-popular website Buzzfeed allowed one of its contributors to post an infographic sharply criticizing for-profit colleges — as a sector run by
Continue Reading >>>

On Friday a Missouri jury awarded $13 million in punitive damages to a single mother who had been deceived by for-profit Vatterott College. Vatterott, which has a long record of abusing students and leaving them deep in debt, is owned by TA Associates, a private equity firm financially tied to Mitt Romney’s own private equity
Continue Reading >>>

The main trade association of for-profit colleges, APSCU, seems to exist for the purpose of protecting the worst, most abusive, most predatory conduct by its member companies. Why else would the association, once again last week, attack the U.S. Department of Education for seeking to implement a law that simply requires career colleges that receive
Continue Reading >>>