Men in camouflage descend the steps of a plane. The camera cuts away to the front of a large house where a soldier embraces his pregnant wife and picks up his son. Instrumental music swells in the background.
“It took extraordinary courage, sacrifice, commitment – and most of all, it took hope,” says a male voice. “We want to thank all those men and women who served our nation and help protect our freedom. Thank you from all of us at ITT Technical Institute.”
This was a 2010 commercial for ITT Tech, a for-profit college system that operated 130 campuses. In 2016, the school shut down, leaving nearly 7,000 veterans in the lurch.
Florida Democrat Rep. Dr. Donna Shalala proposed an amendment to the annual defense spending bill, the National Defense Authorization Act, which would audit for-profit colleges that enroll veterans while failing to meet Department of Education financial responsibility standards. It would require the secretary of defense to review how much Department of Defense Tuition Assistance a for-profit receives and to publish the results online. The goal is to make for-profit schools more transparent so service members can make more informed college decisions – and avoid situations like ITT Tech.
While the amendment enjoyed bipartisan support in the House of Representatives with 20 Republicans joining Democrats to vote in favor, it didn’t make it into the Senate version of the National Defense Authorization Act. So, the amendment will now be considered by a conference committee composed of members of the Senate and House Armed Service committees.
“This is personal for me,” says Shalala. “Every generation of my family has served in our country’s military, and all have used their educational benefits. I know the value of a good education. I have seen it firsthand in my four decades as an educator and as a college president. Our veterans deserve better than policies that allow bad actors in our education system to take advantage of their service and their sacrifice.”
For-profits have a reputation for aggressively advertising to service members and veterans because of a loophole in federal law. They are allowed to get 90 percent of their earnings from Title IV funding, which includes federal student aid. But 10 percent of their money has to come from somewhere else.
