Univ of Phoenix

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reveal ctr inv reporting

dod bans

https://www.democracynow.org/2016/12/2/veterans_helped_trump_win_but_critics

https://www.democracynow.org/2016/12/2/expert_on_trump_business_conflicts_there

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Suze Orman. She calls herself “America’s most recognized expert on personal finance,” but Orman teaches an online personal finance course at the University of Phoenix and promoted the school at a Capitol Hill event, even though attending an expensive for-profit college can be one of the worst financial decisions a person can make. The University of Phoenix is under investigation by the attorney generals of Massachusetts and Florida.

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<h1 class="asset-name" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 26px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">For-Profit Colleges Ready to Rumble Again</h1>

<div class="asset-meta" style=" margin: 0.25em 0px 0px; padding: 2px 0px 0.3em; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">by Brandon Conradis on September 10, 2013 11:11 AM </div>

With students enjoying their first weeks on campus and President Obama's call to bring more accountability to colleges still reverberating, for-profit schools are gearing up for what could be <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/ABC_Univision/obama-administration-profit-colleges/story?id=20200162" target="_blank" style=" outline: none; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">another round of battles</a> over government efforts to tighten regulation of their operations.

The for-profit education industry has been <a href="https://chronicle.com/article/Obama-Singles-Out-For-Profit/141253/" target="_blank" style=" outline: none; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">under fire</a> for the past few years, thanks in part to charges that their students are more likely to graduate with higher levels of debt and fewer prospects of employment than students at nonprofit colleges.

In 2010, the Obama administration attempted <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2013/09/scrutiny-again-for-for-profit-colleges-96432.html" target="_blank" style=" outline: none; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">to take the industry to task</a>by proposing a set of new rules that would clamp down on the schools. Among these was a measure that would bar them from the government's financial aid programs -- their main source of profit -- if fewer than 35 percent of their graduates were actively repaying their student loans.

That same year, for-profit colleges ramped up their spending on lobbying to unprecedented levels in an effort to weaken the regulations. After they spent a <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/background.php?cycle=2012&ind=H5300" style=" outline: none; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">record high</a> $10.2 million in 2011, the Department of Education issued a series of softer regs, including a <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2011/06/03/gainful_employment_rule_to_test_for_profit_colleges/" target="_blank" style=" outline: none; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">multi-year grace period</a> in which for-profit schools would have time to meet the DOE's stricter requirements. Many saw this concession as a victory for the for-profit schools.

Still, the schools fought the 35 percent rule -- the key component of the Obama administration's newly issued regulations -- in court, and in 2012, a federal judge struck it down for being <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/02/education/judge-strikes-a-for-profit-college-regulation.html" target="_blank" style=" outline: none; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"arbitrary."</a> The industry <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2013/01/education-advocacy-declines-steeply.html" style=" outline: none; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">shaved its lobbying expenditures</a> to less than $8 million that year.

Now, a 15-member panel <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2013/08/for-profit-colleges-fear-another-attack-95097.html" target="_blank" style=" outline: none; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">has been established</a> by the Department of Education to rewrite those regs.

The for-profit institutions seem ready to slip into war footing again. A <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/induscode.php?id=H5300&year=" style=" outline: none; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">look</a> at the industry's current lobbying totals in 2013 shows that its spending could by year's end match that of last year. Companies like the Apollo Group (which operates, among other institutions, the University of Phoenix) and Corinthian Colleges, both of which are in the for-profit niche, continue to be among the top spenders on lobbying in the education industry as a whole.

The hefty increase in campaign contributions from the industry last year -- <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/contrib.php?cycle=2012&ind=H5300" style=" outline: none; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">totaling nearly $4.5 million in 2011-2012</a>, up from $2.5 million in the 2010 cycle and $1.6 million in  2007-2008 -- could help, too, as lawmakers often weigh in with regulators to comment on the impact of actions affecting their favored industries. Tops in that department were the Apollo Group, which gave $525,902, and Bridgepoint Education, which gave $472,637, with the majority going to Republican candidates.

<a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2013/09/for-profit-colleges-ready-to-rumble-again.html?utm_source=CRP+Mail+List&utm_campaign=1e96a8d5f8-Newsletter_9_12_20139_12_2013&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_9df8578d78-1e96a8d5f8-210710609">http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2013/09/for-profit-colleges-ready-to-rumble-again.html?utm_source=CRP+Mail+List&utm_campaign=1e96a8d5f8-Newsletter_9_12_20139_12_2013&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_9df8578d78-1e96a8d5f8-210710609</a>