Amid new efforts to reinvigorate lethargic federal investigations of for-profit colleges, some academics who study higher education see the issue as a harbinger of wider conflict and change.
New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal revived the discussion last week by sending a letter to U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos with a specific request: either renew downsized investigations into fraud at for-profit schools and allow cooperation by states, or turn the probes over to the states.
Grewal – who took office in January along with Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, who appointed him – appears to be the first state attorney general to issue such a call to the federal government during this time of reckoning for for-profit colleges. His action comes two years after the Obama administration created a special team in the Department of Education to investigate abuses by for-profit post-secondary education providers in the wake of numerous scandals, including the bankruptcy of for-profit behemoth Corinthian Colleges.
Students who attended for-profit schools tend to default on student loans at higher rates, complete degree programs at lower rates and earn lower wages if they do finish. Racial minorities, low-income students and other underrepresented groups have been impacted disproportionately because they are a disproportionate share of the student population at for-profit schools.
Observers note that the DOE’s investigations have slowed down, shrunken and in some cases stopped since the Trump administration took over in January 2016, as the department under DeVos has appeared less inclined to go full-throttle after for-profit schools accused of predatory and fraudulent activities. The team of investigators and lawyers is now significantly smaller and with a narrower scope – basically “processing student loan forgiveness applications and looking at smaller compliance cases,” the New York Times reported May 13.
Grewal, who said the department is no longer cooperating with or responding to New Jersey’s requests to address for-profit college fraud, voices the frustration of many who demand to see for-profit schools that have behaved improperly held fully accountable. He questioned, for example, the status of investigations into various for-profit schools such as DeVry Education Group, which in 2016 settled for $100 million a lawsuit that alleged misleading advertising.
Dr. Robert Palmer, an associate professor in Howard University’s School of Education, said turning the investigations over to the states may not be a good move.