WASHINGTON — A lawsuit against Ashford University describes an admissions office with a cutthroat sales culture more akin to a used-car lot than a place of higher learning, peddling “false promises and faulty information” to lure students eligible for federal financial aid.
Sound familiar? The allegations in the lawsuit filed by California’s attorney general are strikingly similar to past complaints against now-defunct for-profit chains that spurred sweeping regulation by the Obama administration. And they’re being echoed today in other lawsuits, complaints and ongoing government scrutiny of for-profits even as Education Secretary Betsy DeVos engineers her own seismic shift in the regulatory landscape that stands to benefit the multibillion-dollar industry.
The changes, according to DeVos’ critics, will weaken protections for students who claimed they were defrauded by their schools.
Education Department documents obtained by The Associated Press through an open-records records request show that students filed nearly 24,000 federal fraud complaints between President Donald Trump’s Jan. 20, 2017, inauguration and April 30 this year, almost entirely against for-profit colleges. More than 3,600 were lodged against DeVry University, while the University of Phoenix drew 1,100.
Separately, the Federal Trade Commission is investigating the University of Phoenix chain for possible deceptive or unfair business practices, a probe that began under the Obama administration.
And the Department of Veterans Affairs is in an extraordinary dispute with Ashford over the school’s eligibility to receive federal GI Bill funding, which many military veterans use to pay tuition. The outcome could have major implications for Ashford if it’s cut off from that funding.
But DeVos’ about-face from Obama administration regulation could amount to a lifeline for many for-profit schools already wrestling with image problems, sliding enrollments and growing competition, even in online education.
