{"id":10872,"date":"2018-02-27T12:19:59","date_gmt":"2018-02-27T17:19:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/?p=10872"},"modified":"2018-02-28T01:34:19","modified_gmt":"2018-02-28T06:34:19","slug":"the-trump-administrations-for-profit-college-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/the-trump-administrations-for-profit-college-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"The Trump Administration’s For-Profit College Problem"},"content":{"rendered":"

On December 12, 2016, then-Secretary of Education John King revoked<\/a> federal recognition of the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (\u201cACICS\u201d). ACICS had risen to public prominence for its accreditation of for-profit colleges and had become notorious<\/a> for \u201ca long track record of failing to hold schools accountable for wrongdoing.\u201d Most infamous was its accreditation of Corinthian Colleges, Inc., a collection of schools described as \u201can example of the worst practices in the for-profit college education sector<\/a>.\u201d In the final years of its existence, Corinthian attracted intense public scrutiny and numerous lawsuits. It ultimately shut down<\/a> in 2015 after it was denied further federal funding, leaving thousands of students without a clear path to completing their degrees.<\/p>\n

Secretary King\u2019s decision to revoke recognition was based on the finding that ACICS was out of compliance with \u201c21 separate recognition criteria set forth in the regulations,\u201d and that the organization would be unable to come into compliance within 12 months. As a report<\/a> by the Center for American Progress concluded, \u201cACICS [was] incapable of acting as a sufficient assessor of college quality and . . . its repeated poor judgment [left] millions of students and billions of taxpayer dollars at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following Secretary King\u2019s decision, the 269 institutions of higher education that were accredited by ACICS were given 18 months<\/a> to find a new source of accreditation in order to remain eligible for federal funding (including for student financial aid). While the majority of these institutions have either been accredited or are on track to be accredited by the June 12 deadline, there remain a number of schools that have either been unable to find a new path to accreditation or whose status cannot be verified.<\/p>\n

A number of legal issues have arisen from the decertification of ACICS and the failure of numerous of the schools it had accredited, many of which have been exacerbated by the change in administrations.<\/p>\n

Corinthian students, originally promised full relief for their federal student loans by the Obama administration, were told in late 2017 that the government would only partially forgive<\/a> their loans, dependent upon their current income level. This came almost a year after the government stopped processing the applications for loan discharge; since the beginning of the Trump administration, 80,000+ applications have stagnated<\/a> in the system, and now will be subjected to the new policies (if they are ever acknowledged). A class action lawsuit has been filed<\/a> by former Corinthian students in the Northern California District Court in response to these developments, and attorneys general from across the country have filed<\/a> a lawsuit to reverse these policy changes. Similar suits<\/a> have been filed in an attempt to ensure protection for the \u201c98.6 percent of the former students who applied for loan discharges [who] attended for-profit schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

In late January, Secretary Betsy DeVos\u2019s Department of Education\u00a0announced<\/a> they would consider ACICS\u2019s application to be re-recognized by the federal government and authorized to accredit institutes of higher learning. This announcement has already been the subject of legal action. On February 15, 2018, a temporary restraining order<\/a> was issued by the Honorable Paul A. Crotty, U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York, preventing the agency from closing its public comment period on the decision until they released the content of ACICS\u2019s application. In his decision, Judge Crotty wrote that \u201cby ending the comment period before . . . groups have an opportunity to review the application, the Department may very well be acting arbitrarily and capriciously.\u201d The comment period has been extended to March 1st<\/sup>, and the department has begun releasing documents<\/a> relevant to ACICS\u2019s application; however, The Century Foundation (plaintiffs in the initial suit) have left open the door<\/a> to further legal action should the March 1st<\/sup> deadline prove to be too soon to allow for adequate public comment.<\/p>\n

On February 16th<\/sup>, 20 attorneys general released a letter<\/a> to Secretary DeVos, arguing that a careful review of the Department of Education\u2019s Criteria for the Recognition of Accrediting Agencies shows that \u201cACICS is ineligible for recognition and urg[ing] the Department to reject its application.\u201d They further stated that:<\/p>\n

\u201cACICS willingly accredited predatory schools that left students across the country mired in debt and without the quality education they were promised. Despite being aware of these schools\u2019 misconduct, ACICS continued to accredit the institutions, in some cases up until the day the schools closed and filed for bankruptcy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through their letter, the attorneys general underscore the gravity of the situation. ACICS\u2019s disregard for basic standards in their accreditation process led to students graduating from colleges that had not fulfilled their basic obligations as institutions of higher education. The collapse of these schools has spawned numerous lawsuits in attempts to obtain basic justice for some of the tens of thousands of students who were harmed as a result. And less than two years later, the Department of Education is preparing to re-recognize them as a credible accreditor of exactly those same schools.\u00a0 This about-face is yet one more sign of the government\u2019s coziness with for-profit colleges \u2013 a relationship that comes at the expense of students nationwide.<\/p>\n

Any discussion of the Trump administration\u2019s relationship with for-profit colleges cannot take place without discussion of the President himself. Just two weeks after his Department of Education opened its inquiry into re-recognizing ACICS, President Trump\u2019s own for-profit college was back in the news, as the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected<\/a> a challenge to the $25 million settlement he had reached with students who had attended Trump University.<\/p>\n

Civil Rights organizations have long opposed<\/a> for-profit colleges on the grounds that they \u201cengage in in predatory and sometimes outright fraudulent recruiting practices directed to underserved populations of students, including students of color, low-income students, and veterans,\u201d while being \u201ccostly, and leav[ing] many students saddled with a lifetime of debt that all too often ends in default.\u201d With a President who founded a for-profit college that shut down because of its predatory practices and a Department of Education that has consistently opted against protecting students, the threat to vulnerable populations of students appears to be rising.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On December 12, 2016, then-Secretary of Education John King revoked federal recognition of the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and 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