Colleges offering distance education, such as online courses, must receive authorization from each state where it has students in order to receive federal financial aid, according to recently released rules that aim to better regulate the online education industry and ensure students understand what protections they have when attending a college in another state. [More]
education
For-Profit Educator Bridegepoint Education Under Investigation Over Federal Funding
By 7.13.16
Bridgepoint Education, the operator of for-profit colleges Ashford University and the University of the Rockies, added its name to the long list of higher education companies to find themselves on the receiving end of a federal investigation, as the Department of Justice has opened a probe into the organization’s federal student aid funding. [More]
Are You A Brown Mackie College Student Or Staffer? We Want To Hear From You
June 10, 2016
This morning, for-profit educator Brown Mackie College announced it was gradually closing all but a few of its more than 25 campuses in 15 states. While we’ve seen what the school is telling students and employees about the situation, we want to hear directly from those who are most affected by this news. [More]
Is ITT Tech Headed For A Collapse? School Required To Set Aside Funds Just In Case
By 6.7.16
Trouble continues to mount for ITT Educational Services. The for-profit college operator behind the ITT Technical Institute chain, which is already under investigation by federal and state agencies for a slew of abusive and misleading practices, must now have enough money on hand just in case it’s forced to close its doors. [More]
Report: Accreditor Allowed $5.7B In Federal Funds To Go To Schools Under Investigation
By 6.7.16
Less than a week after California’s Attorney General urged the Department of Education to revoke federal recognition of Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS) following its continued approval of for-profit education chain Corinthian Colleges Inc. up until the day the now defunct schools closed their doors, a new report reveals ACICS’s “pattern” of providing approval to schools with bad track records, resulting in the funneling of more than $6 billion in federal funds to those schools. [More]
$100M Grant Competition Aims To Expand Tuition-Free Community College Programs
By 4.25.16
In January 2015, President Obama announced a proposal that would make the first two years of community college free for some consumers hoping to further their education. Today, the White House revealed another step in making that goal a reality through a $100 million competitive grant program focused on expanding workforce training programs at community colleges. [More]
Group Accuses ‘Your Baby Can Read’ Creators Of Violating False Advertising Settlement With ‘Your Baby Can Learn’
By 3.22.16
Nearly two years ago, the creators of the popular Your Baby Can Read! series of videos put an end to a Federal Trade Commission deceptive advertising complaint by agreeing to cease making unsubstantiated claims about any product that purports to teach kids how to read. But the advocacy group that first spurred the FTC into action says that the creators of this program are violating that 2014 deal. [More]
Law Firm In Charge Of Corinthian Colleges Turnaround Fired By Dept. Of Education
By 3.15.16
When Education Credit Management Corporation completed the purchase of 56 Everest University and WyoTech campuses from now-defunct for-profit education chain Corinthian Colleges, it agreed to hire an independent monitor to oversee the turnaround of the schools. Things apparently aren’t going so well, as the Department of Education announced it has fired the law firm hired for the task. [More]
Appeals Court Shuts Down For-Profit College Industry’s Effort To Avoid Accountability
By 3.8.16
The for-profit college industry lost an important legal battle today, when a federal appeals court upheld last year’s lower court ruling in favor of new regulations intended to hold these controversial schools accountable. [More]
AGs Seek Better Protections For Servicemembers Deceived By For-Profit Colleges
By 2.29.16
Federal regulators must do more to protect servicemembers from unscrupulous colleges seeking to get their hands on their education benefits. That’s the message eight states want to get across to the secretary of Veteran Affairs following reports that some for-profit colleges target military personnel using predatory practices. [More]
Fairly Used: Why Schools Need To Teach Kids The Whole Truth About Copyright
By 2.26.16
Today’s teenagers live in a time where technology gives them the tools to create, share, and publish just about anything they can conceive, and enables and encourages them to use and remix existing content from TV, movies, music, and games. At the same time, they are repeatedly reminded that their creations can be shut down, removed, or monetized by others who simply claim to have a copyright. So they know how to snag a clip from The Walking Dead, set it to “Yakety Sax” and post it on YouTube, but what they may not know — because most schools are failing to teach them — is under what circumstances the law actually protects the fair use of copyrighted material, and when it doesn’t. [More]
For-Profit Grand Canyon University Set To Go Nonprofit
By 2.22.16
More than a decade after Grand Canyon University became the first Christian college to get into the for-profit education field, the chain’s operators have announced plans to take the school and its 75,000 students back to the non-profit sphere. [More]
High School Grads Failed To Claim $2.7B In College Grant Money Last Year
By 1.27.16
If you’re planning to attend college in the fall but haven’t gone through the not terribly difficult process of filling out a Free Application for Federal Student Aid, you’re potentially giving up your chance to claim thousands of dollars in free money. But you wouldn’t be alone; a new analysis shows that U.S. students failed to claim upwards of $2.7 billion last year because they didn’t take the time to fill out a piece of paper. [More]
Google Gets Access To Your Kids’ Data Because It’s A “School Official”
By 12.31.15
Sometimes, data has to be shared to be useful. For example, a school district needs information on the students in it, in order to function. When are they absent? What are their grades? How are things going with scheduling? So it wouldn’t come as a surprise to most parents that “school officials” are on the list of entities who are allowed to access data, even sometimes sensitive data, about their kids. But it would shock most parents to find out that Google — yes, that Google — is one of those “school officials.” [More]
Pizza Hut Latest Company Offering To Help Send Employees To College
By 12.16.15
What do a car manufacturer, a coffee chain, a health insurance giant, and a pizza joint have in common? They all offer to foot the bill — or at least some of it — so their employees can further their education by obtaining a college degree. [More]
UPDATE: For-Profit Education Company EDMC Agrees To Pay $95.5M To Settle Fraud, Recruitment Violations
By 11.16.15
UPDATE: Education Management Corporation, the operator of for-profit college chains such as Brown Mackie College, Argosy University and the Art Institutes, will pay $95.5 million to settle claims it violated state and federal False Claims Act (FCA) provisions regarding its recruiting practices. [More]
Lawmakers Continue Crusade To Rein In For-Profit Colleges Targeting Servicemembers
By 11.10.15
In recent months federal regulators and government agencies have increased scrutiny of for-profit colleges and their interactions with servicemembers, veterans and their families. Today, lawmakers furthered that mission by introducing legislation that would restore previous limits on how much money these educational institutions can receive from the federal government via military benefits and other programs. [More]
Starbucks Expands Tuition Program To Cover Spouses & Kids Of Military Employees
By 11.9.15
Since announcing a tuition reimbursement program for its workers in June 2014 – and an expansion to cover four years of schooling – Starbucks has sent more than 4,000 employees on a path toward an online bachelor’s degree from Arizona State University. Now, the company plans to expand the offering once again: covering the full tuition for a spouse or child of a veteran or active-duty servicemember working for the mega-coffee chain. [More]
