![]() ![]() Not as glittery a keynote as the industry used to pay for in its heyday, when their schools were less publicly toxic, and Colin Powell, Bill Clinton, George Bush, and others graced their convention podium. The conference keynote speaker is former Representative John Kline (R-MN), who retired from Congress last year after serving as chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, and as one of the for-profit college industry’s most obedient cheerleaders, and one of the biggest recipients of its campaign contributions. So what are the for-profit colleges owners and executives talking about in Vegas this week, after their annual golf tournament? Here are some hints from the conference program:ġ. There are decent programs, and many good teachers, in this industry, but too often for-profit college owners have cynically separated students and taxpayers from their money, with deceptive recruiting, sky-high tuition, and underfunded teaching, resulting in dismal job outcomes and enormous debt that ruins students’ financial futures. With the Trump/Devos Department of Education staffing up with for-profit college executives, and giving numerous indications that it will trash carefully-crafted Obama rules to curb industry deceptions and abuses, and weaken efforts to give debt relief to defrauded students, the worst of these taxpayer-funded barons may be hoping for a new era of unchecked bad behavior.īut they know they still have challenges: the horrible record of many for-profit schools, publicly exposed by government and media investigations the continuing probes and determination of numerous state attorneys general and the vigilance of champions in Congress like Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA), as well as student, veterans, civil rights, and other advocacy groups. Tied to Trump by mutual friends like Newt Gingrich and Betsy Devos, and by a love of luring anxious people into predatory deals, the for-profit colleges may have gotten a remarkable reprieve. Then, a miracle happened: The President of Trump University was elected President of the United States. CECU itself was depleted of members, staff, and budget after its strategy of aggressively fighting against basic accountability measures had failed miserably. Last year’s CECU convention, held in Orlando, found the once-buoyant for-profit college owners, who have been pulling in billions in taxpayer dollars, in a sadder mood, as the weight of revelations about predatory practices in the industry had finally produced law enforcement investigations, tougher Department of Education regulations, and plummeting enrollments and revenues. While everyone else is glued to Comey TV, the discredited for-profit college trade association CECU is meeting this week in Las Vegas.
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