March 19, 2018

The Mysterious Deal to Take DeVry University Private

  Who owns the private company that is buying 30,000-student DeVry University, which gets some $400 million a year from taxpayers, and how do they plan to run the school? No one is saying.   In December, one of the largest for-profit education companies, Adtalem Global Education, formerly known as DeVry Education Group, announced that
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March 19, 2018

For-Profit College Lobbyist Blames Obama, John Oliver, New York Times, OITNB, for Industry Woes

  In a recent essay, top for-profit college lobbyist Steve Gunderson, a Newt Gingrich crony and former GOP congressman (R-WI), blames Barack Obama, John Oliver, Adam Sandler, the New York Times, “Orange is the New Black,” and others for his industry’s dramatic decline in fortunes. “Years of relentless attacks from leading political figures, including the
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March 14, 2018

DeVos Gives Away Store, But For-Profit Colleges Want More

Across the full range of federal agencies, the “drain the swamp” Trump presidency is giving swampy corporations and special interests everything they want, by getting rid of health, safety, environmental, worker, civil rights, and consumer protection rules. Much of this organized corruption in favor of GOP donors, like oil companies, occurs on paper and behind
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March 13, 2018

For-Profit Bridgepoint Says Its Colleges Will Become Non-Profit (But It Won’t)

Sunday we wrote about the new gold rush in education: for-profit colleges converting to non-profit status, allowing them to shed the stigma and special regulatory requirements of for-profits, notably the federal 90-10 rule, while retaining parallel for-profit entities that could keep getting paid by the non-profit, and thus keep getting rich off an endless flow
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March 9, 2018

For-Profit College’s Bizarre Explanation for Shutting Out Students

Despite the ongoing project by Trump Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and her revolving door lieutenants to abandon all accountability measures for predatory colleges and student loan collectors, for-profit schools around the country keep failing. The latest announcement comes from Lake Charles, Louisiana’s Delta Tech (Delta School of Business and Technology), which abruptly declared it would stop looking
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March 6, 2018

Another For-Profit College Lobbyist To Join DeVos Education Department

Politico reports today that Diane Auer Jones is joining Betsy DeVos’s Department of Education Department as senior policy adviser to the secretary. Jones has been working at the U.S. Department of Labor since November, and worked in the George W. Bush administration as assistant secretary for postsecondary education. But in between, Jones was, from 2010 until 2015, senior
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February 27, 2018

Discredited Accreditor ACICS Fails to Get Many State Endorsements

With Trump Education Secretary Betsy DeVos considering the request of the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS) to be reinstated as a gatekeeper for federal student grants and loans, the discredited for-profit college accreditor has reached out to state higher education oversight agencies seeking endorsement. According to state officials and public records, at least
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February 21, 2018

New Fraud Suit Targets Call Center That Pushes Students to Predatory Colleges

A former employee of a call center that pushed students into predatory for-profit colleges has initiated a blockbuster whistleblower lawsuit on behalf of taxpayers against his former employer, Utah-based EduTrek, and against numerous for-profit colleges that have used the company to recruit new students. The complaint, filed with the federal court in Utah in 2016,
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