June 25, 2012

Bush Gaffe — Telling For-Profit Colleges That Govt Should Demand Results For Taxpayer Money — Is Met With Silence

The annual convention of the biggest association of for-profit colleges, APSCU, concluded last Friday in Las Vegas. Republic Report wanted to cover the event, because we all helped pay for it: Taxpayers provide $32 billion a year to this industry — for some schools, over 90 percent of their revenue. These corporations could strive to
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June 21, 2012

EXCLUSIVE: Michelle Rhee To For-Profit College Industry: You’re “Doing Incredible Work”

She promised a bang, but delivered a whimper. Republic Report was the first to report that Michelle Rhee, the hard-charging former chancellor of the District of Columbia public schools, would be addressing the Las Vegas annual convention of APSCU, the largest trade association for the controversial for-profit college industry. Not everyone is a fan of Rhee’s
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June 21, 2012

Why Are a Former President of the MacArthur Foundation, and Former Governors Kean and Rendell, Paid By a For-Profit College Group?

Why would a leader with a good reputation affiliate himself with an industry that has a bad reputation?  If you’ve visited this website before, you might suspect that money is involved. And you’d be right. On May 29, the New York Times published an editorial calling for government action to address spiraling college debt. The Times
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May 23, 2012

Romney Names Education Profiteer As Co-Chair Of His K-12 Education Committee

EdWeek reports that presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney has named the members of his K-12 Education Committee for his campaign: Serving as Rommey’s K-12 committee co-chairs will be Nina S. Rees, a former assistant deputy secretary for innovation and improvement at the U.S. Department of Education and currently the senior vice president for strategic
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May 17, 2012

Fla. Rep. Hastings Tied To FastTrain, For-Profit College Raided by FBI

  The FBI raided campuses of Florida-based FastTrain College on Wednesday. The for-profit school has multiple ties to Representative Alcee Hastings (D-FL), who has been a fervent backer of for-profit education companies. This industry has lobbied Congress fiercely in recent years to avoid accountability for waste, fraud, and abuse at the expense of students and
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May 4, 2012

Testing Company Pearson Spending Millions To Influence Schools

In America’s schools, the barrage of standardized testing kids have come under is overwhelming. From the Iowa Test of Basic Standards (ITBS) to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the alphabet soup of bubble-in tests that fill our schools is provoking a backlash from educators and parents who think kids are over-tested and denied
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April 27, 2012

A Good Day: Obama Stands With Troops Instead of Wealthy Predatory Colleges

A Good Day: Obama Stands With Troops Instead of Wealthy Predatory Colleges

At Fort Stewart, Georgia, today, President Obama  signed an executive order aiming to protect U.S. troops, veterans, and their families from the predatory abuses of some for-profit colleges. It remains to be seen if this new directive will do enough to guide our service members into programs that actually help them build careers — and away
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April 26, 2012

Exclusive: Washington Post’s Kaplan and Other For-Profit Colleges Joined ALEC, Controversial Special Interest Lobby

Republic Report has learned that the Washington Post Company’s Kaplan for-profit college division, was, last year, a member of the controversial business advocacy group the American Legislative Exchange Council. Other major for-profit education companies also joined ALEC. Republic Report has obtained a July 2011 document showing Kaplan Higher Education and other for-profits as members of
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