Sharon P. Robinson, the president and chief executive officer of the non-profit American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) has served, since January 2011, on the board of directors of Corinthian Colleges, a publicly-traded corporation that runs the for-profit colleges Everest, Heald, and WyoTech. While Robinson’s organization advocates for strong professional teacher education, Corinthian has a
Continue Reading >>>

I’ve just published a new 100-page e-book, Stealing America’s Future: How For-Profit Colleges Scam Taxpayers and Ruin Students’ Lives. You can buy it for 99 cents on Amazon. I hope you’ll read it, because it is a critical moment for Americans to examine and speak out on the issue of for-profit colleges, the trade schools that bombard
Continue Reading >>>

This morning, the Obama Administration released its new proposed “gainful employment” rule, aimed at ending taxpayer support for college programs that claim to train people for careers as medical assistants, air conditioner repair technicians, or software coders, but instead consistently leave their former  students with shaky job prospects and insurmountable debt. Most of the big
Continue Reading >>>

Steve Gunderson, the former congressman (R-WI) who heads APSCU, the lobbying group for America’s for-profit colleges, seems to be getting desperate. The industry he represents is seeking once again to block the Obama Administration from issuing a “gainful employment” rule that would, eventually, cut off federal student aid to career training schools that consistently leave
Continue Reading >>>

Developments are happening at lightning speed on for-profit college issues. This morning: 1. The Department of Veterans affairs launched a new website, the GI Bill Comparison Tool, allowing vets, and to some extent other students, to compare college options. The initiative is part of action on President Obama’s 2012 executive order to protect vets and current service
Continue Reading >>>

Twenty-term California Democratic Congressman George Miller informed his staff today that he is retiring.  Miller deserves credit for a long record of public service.  Among many other things, this development could have implications for the long struggle by the Obama Administration to hold the for-profit college industry accountable for deceit and abuse of students and
Continue Reading >>>

Thirty House Democrats ended up signing a letter to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan that was organized at the behest of the for-profit college industry. The prime movers of the letter, Representatives Alcee Hastings (FL) and Rob Andrews (NJ), both are regular recipients of campaign cash from this industry.  But the industry did not get
Continue Reading >>>

In the past five years Americans have become increasingly aware that many for-profit colleges — the career training schools that advertise all over TV, the Internet, and city buses — are engaged in systematic fraud. These schools have been caught luring students with false promises about the cost of programs and the value of degrees
Continue Reading >>>