On April 15, 2016, the U.S. Department of Education cut off federal student grants and loans to the Skokie, Illinois-based for-profit college chain Computer Systems Institute (CSI), citing detailed evidence of fraudulent conduct. Denying CSI’s appeal from its initial January 2016 decision, the Department used unusually harsh language in concluding that CSI gave its accrediting agency, Accrediting Council
Continue Reading >>>

Donald Trump spoke today at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and offered a new “contract between Donald J. Trump and the American voter,” which is pretty funny given that Trump has failed to honor hundreds of contracts.  So I’m not sure we should sign it.  But we need to hear him out. I tried to transcribe Trump’s remarks as
Continue Reading >>>

Editor’s note from David Halperin: Last week, we posted a piece reporting concerns by a leading higher education expert (who asked not to be identified by name because of job concerns) that lobbying could weaken protections in federal laws governing competency-based education (CBE), and that such changes could increase the ability of unethical institutions to defraud students and taxpayers.
Continue Reading >>>

The U.S. Department of Education yesterday took a momentous step, deciding that the CollegeAmerica / Stevens-Henager / CEHE chain of colleges, despite formally converting from a for-profit to a non-profit enterprise, is still acting like a self-interested business corporation, rather than a charitable institution, and thus should remain subject to the handful of rules that
Continue Reading >>>

The Obama Administration is on the verge of issuing a proposed rule that would create new procedures and standards for cancelling the federal student loan debt of people who were defrauded by their colleges. The rule would also create new standards for the Department of Education to require colleges to post escalating letters of credit based
Continue Reading >>>

The for-profit college trade association APSCU opened its conference today in Orlando, and amid sessions about dealing with increased government scrutiny after APSCU’s failed lobbying strategy, there was news about two former APSCU members: Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey today announced a June 2 agreement under which for-profit American Career Institute (ACI), which shut down
Continue Reading >>>

This article, which originally was published (April 3, 2014) in The Nation, is adapted from David Halperin’s e-book, Stealing America’s Future: How For-Profit Colleges Scam Taxpayers and Ruin Students’ Lives, available at Amazon. Many of America’s for-profit colleges have proven themselves a bad deal for the students lured by their enticing promises—as well as for US taxpayers, who subsidize
Continue Reading >>>

The Department of Education tonight released a new draft of regulations on student debt relief, in advance of the third round of rulemaking meetings to be held next week, and in a press release (see below) accompanying the proposal the Department appears to take a hard line against the fine-print language that for-profit colleges have
Continue Reading >>>