Donald Trump’s pledge to drain the swamp in Washington has already turned out to be a cruel hoax on the working class voters who believed it, as his transition quickly leaned on insider lobbyists and his administration is filling with the corporate elites and Goldman Sachs bankers he attacked during the campaign. But you might
Continue Reading >>>

  The U.S. Department of Education this hour has released the first round of measures under its new contested gainful employment rule, which tests which career college programs, though a combination of high prices and low quality, leave too many of their graduates with overwhelming student loan debt. The requirements of the final gainful employment rule are
Continue Reading >>>

With the U.S. Department of Education today planning to release gainful employment data, showing which career colleges are leaving their students with overwhelming debt, and with Trump Secretary of Education nominee Betsy DeVos likely to face questions about career college accountability at her confirmation hearing set for Wednesday, below is a critical new analysis from the
Continue Reading >>>

An article in today’s New York Post renews legitimate concerns about a pending private equity takeover of the largest for-profit college, the University of Phoenix. But the piece does so in a troubling manner, citing as critics of the deal supposed experts who themselves have traded on revolving door connections to take for-profit college cash. The Post piece
Continue Reading >>>

Former students from across the country today filed a blockbuster lawsuit against the collapsed for-profit college giant ITT Tech. The students’ complaint, seeking to intervene in the ongoing bankruptcy proceeding filed by the company, draws on testimonials from hundreds of students — veterans, single mothers, and more — who say they were deceived and abused
Continue Reading >>>

Donald Trump’s public contemplation of picking ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson to be U.S. Secretary of State raises a range of controversies, including Tillerson’s dealmaking with Russia and close ties to Vladimir Putin. It also intensifies attention on ExxonMobil’s escalating court battle with the attorneys general of New York and Massachusetts over the question of whether the company improperly
Continue Reading >>>

U.S. Secretary of Education John King today took the final step in the government de-recognizing the troubled Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS). King concluded that ACICS has “exhibited a profound lack of compliance” with its responsibilities as an accreditor. King’s decision means that colleges accredited by ACICS will have to find new accreditors if they
Continue Reading >>>

The U.S. Department of Education today approved the application of the Apollo Education Group, owner of the University of Phoenix, to convert from being a publicly-traded company to one owned by private equity firms and still keep its eligibility for federal student grants and loans. But in a letter, the Department, expressly citing the multiple
Continue Reading >>>