Fifteen organizations (and me) have sent a letter calling on the U.S. Department of Education to strengthen its reviews of accreditors, with a focus on accreditor oversight of schools with poor student outcomes and predatory practices. Accreditors that the Department approves serve as gatekeepers for federal student aid: Students who enroll at schools approved by
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At a trial in a San Diego courtroom late last year, lawyers from the California attorney general’s office presented powerful evidence regarding years of predatory abuses against students by for-profit Ashford University. The case now awaits a verdict by the presiding state judge. Meanwhile, the school has come under increasing scrutiny by its accreditor, WASC,
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This morning, Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA), chair of the House Education and Labor Committee, called on the U.S. Department of Education to reconsider the non-profit status of Florida’s Keiser University and its parent institution, Everglades College, after a review by the Committee found that school president Arthur Keiser and other insiders have received millions of
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For-profit college giant the University of Phoenix today named George A. Burnett its new president. Burnett, slated to start work next week, was once the CEO of Denver-based Alta Colleges, operator of Westwood College, which closed in 2015 in the wake of a devastating legal complaint, alleging systematic deceptions of students, filed by the state
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Bradley Adams, the chief operating officer of South College and the lead negotiator for the for-profit college industry in this week’s Department of Education rule-making meetings, has criticized proposed rules that would hold career college programs more accountable for deceiving students and burying them in debt. Predictably, Adams has repeated the industry’s mantra that all
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  Today, the U.S. Department of Education begins a new round of negotiation sessions with a group of higher education stakeholders as the start of a process of creating new rules to hold colleges accountable for predatory abuses. The Department last week released a series of papers aimed at starting debate on issues related to
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  I needed a COVID test and finally found one at a church by the airport. Only nine cars ahead of me, but it was moving kinda slow because only one person was doing all the work. This young woman was smart and diligent, doing her best. She looked at my form and said, “You
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As we approach the end of 2021, here are some higher education stories that I wish I had more time to pursue now. Some of them I’ve dug into pretty deeply already, while others I haven’t done much with yet. If you have info on these matters, please let me know. Or investigate them yourself.
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