"There are things you can do to make a deal essentially untenable," he said. But the arrangement with Studio Enterprise, a Los Angeles company that provides support services for creative-industry training programs, raises its own questions. The Real Legacy of the College Admissions Scandal This article was published more than2 years ago. At the time of the sale, EDMC records indicated an enrollment of 65,000 students. Now most of the college chain is closed after the company failed to make millions in financial aid payments to students. I stand firm in my decision to work collaboratively with accreditors to hold Dream Center accountable. But Dream Center still needed the blessing of the commission for the credits and degrees it conferred to students during the lapse in accreditation to have value. Even as Argosy campuses prepared to close, a dean at the American School of Professional Psychology in Northern Virginia emailed students on Wednesday, imploring them to attend classes the rest of the week if we are to save the semester.. Clifford said he supports the idea of shifting oversight from the accreditors to the states. Were coming in with the view that these schools need investment, he said. Trump administration pulls federal student aid from Argosy University. While we did not achieve a perfect outcome, our actions helped thousands of students land on their feet.. Performances of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" are in the Spartan Auditorium in Building G, 1700 Spartan Drive, Elgin, Ill. Tickets are $12 for adults and $10 for seniors. It is really up to the department to put conditions in place to mitigate the consequences of the acquirer not being able to keep the organization going," said Jay Urwitz, a former deputy general counsel at the Education Department who retired in 2017 and is now a senior fellow at the American Council on Education. Private investment firm behind acquisition of Art Institutes and South Dream Centers head of regulatory and government affairs wrote an email to her colleagues reminding them that communication about accreditation should be kept confidential. The department had released a total of $40 million from the escrow account to Dream Center by the end of last year, according to records it sent in response to questions from Congress. Or, ask President Trump, who portrays himself as a self-made man who received only a small loan from his father but in fact benefited from his fathers largesse to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. By July 2018, Dream Center was running out of cash and knew its accreditation problems could worsen its financial strain. Subscribe for free to Inside Higher Eds newsletters, featuring the latest news, opinion and great new careers in higher education delivered to your inbox. Instead, it was facing a $38 million loss. Making matters worse, the college is accused of enrolling new students and taking their taxpayer-supported financial aid dollars even after some of its campuses had lost their accreditation, which rendered their credits worthless. (119 reviews) The main characteristic of the Alpe di Catenaia . Despite having a recognizable brand, EDMC struggled with decreases in enrollment and revenue and increased scrutiny by state and federal investigations before selling the properties last year to the Dream Center Foundation, a Christian missionary organization. The Dream Center deal moved forward, however, without objections from the department or some of the more stringent conditions that had been imposed on previous major for-profit transactions. Consumer groups and lawmakers, however, are questioning the arrangement. The institute also employs 75 part-time instructors, none of whom were laid off. About 30 colleges are shutting their doors at the end of this month, nearly a year after becoming the latest group of for-profit institutions to convert to nonprofit status. They accused the institutionof hiding the fact that HLCrevoked accreditation in January while continuing to encouragestudents to payfor courses and to graduatewith unaccredited degrees. Jamie Studley, the WASC president, said that in 2018 there was some progress addressing those issues but not enough to get full approval for the conversion or have its accreditation reaffirmed. While it is true that the scandal participants disadvantaged only a small group of applicants who might have earned walk-on slots as a rower, water polo player or participant in some other sport, there were clearly qualified, deserving candidates disenfranchised by the bribery and corruption. The charity, started 25 years ago and affiliated with a Pentecostal megachurch in Los Angeles, has a nationwide network of outreach programs for problems like homelessness and domestic violence and said it planned to use the schools to fund its expansion. Believing that you somehow earned your fortunate position apparently helps you to sleep at night and absolves you of any responsibility to help the less fortunate. But he feels worse for his younger classmates. Over . WSCUC requested teach-out plans from Dream Center in December when the receivership was imminent. When it fell short, the company in January 2019 entered into a form of bankruptcy. That was precisely the case in 2018 when a racist video featuring frat members was posted online. The funds were intended to offset taxpayer liabilities if some of the chains schools closed or failed. Via del Salvatore, Cortona, 52044. That final move was considered the death knell for the company. Dream Center Education Holdings, the nonprofit owner of the campuses, is facing bankruptcy and says it is attempting to unload the institutions in order to keep them open. In a letter to Ms. DeVos, the chairman of the House Education Committee said the department was complicit in the downfall of Dream Center. "No one wants another Corinthian or ITT [Technical Institutes]," Clifford said, referring to for-profit chains that collapsed in recent years after being subjected to increased federal oversight. If the schools close, students can seek help under a program covering school shutdowns. Such parents want absolute certainty that their kids will not be subject to working-class hell. There were real victims in the admissions scandal (opinion) In 2019, the Department agreed to cancel approximately $11 million in student debt that it had illegally lent to Student Defense clients after concealing several schools' loss of eligibility for federal funds. Led by Secretary Betsy DeVos, the Education Department has reversed an Obama-era crackdown on troubled vocational and career schools and allowed new and less experienced entrants into the field.