WASHINGTON, DC — Earlier this week, U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) demanded the U.S. Department of Education (ED) immediately take action to stop millions in federal funds from being provided to potentially fraudulent for-profit institutions, as uncovered by a recent report in The New York Times.
In writing to ED Under Secretary Ted Mitchell, the senators implored ED to increase efforts to prevent student aid funding from going to fraudulent institutions, specifically by working with state and federal authorities currently investigating for-profit schools to determine appropriate spending restrictions. In a recent letter to ITT Educational Services, Inc. (ITT), ED cited a civil action brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as part of the rationale for imposing additional requirements on ITT’s participation in federal student aid programs.
“As demonstrated by the catastrophic closure of Corinthian Colleges, Inc. earlier this year, the current program integrity structure does not provide sufficient protection to prevent federal dollars from being squandered at illegitimate institutions” the senators wrote. “Allowing fraudulent for-profit schools to continue collecting federal funding until they collapse is unacceptable.”
“As an integral component of the program integrity triad designed to ensure institutional quality, ED has the responsibility and authority to curb the flow of federal financial aid funding going to for-profit schools that have defrauded their students.”
“Many federal and state authorities, including a working group of 37 state Attorneys General, are investigating various for-profit institutions and collecting evidence of erroneous job placement rates, misrepresentations of credit transferability, and other fraudulent behavior. ED should request specific evidence from the investigating federal and state authorities and review such evidence to determine appropriate restrictions on the flow of federal student aid funding to the schools that are the subjects of such investigations.”
Full text of the letter can be viewed HERE.
(NOTE: The above press release is from Senator Elizabeth Warren’s Office.)
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