January 28, 2025

U of Idaho President Seems To Temper His Cheerleading for U of Phoenix Purchase

In testimony Monday before a joint committee of the Idaho legislature, University of Idaho president C. Scott Green seemed a little less committed to the deal he has relentlessly touted for more than a year and a half — for his school to buy, for $685 million, the huge for-profit University of Phoenix from private
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January 17, 2025

How University of Arizona Global Campus’ Online Recruitment Ads Drain Its Finances

In 2020, the University of Arizona acquired Ashford University, an online for-profit college that a California court later found guilty of having deceived students about job prospects, transfer opportunities, and degree costs. Feeling pressured to better compete in the online education market — especially as Arizona State University broadened its virtual options — University of Arizona leaders recast
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January 15, 2025

The Education Department Acts on OPMs: Misleading Students About Online Degrees Could Cost Colleges Their Federal Aid

For-profit companies that help colleges create and recruit students into online programs cannot represent themselves as part of those institutions, nor can they claim that their virtual credentials are equivalent to in-person ones, the U.S. Department of Education announced Tuesday. Doing so would likely be considered misrepresentation and could result in the Education Department fining
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January 15, 2025

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
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January 13, 2025

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
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December 11, 2024

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
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December 5, 2024

Idaho High Court Rejects Secret Meetings on U of Phoenix Deal

Idaho Education News

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
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December 4, 2024

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
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