tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22801428625018927332024-03-13T01:27:35.030-04:00Florida Association of Postsecondary Schools and CollegesServing Florida's 1,000 Private, Licensed Career Schools and Colleges providing job skills training and education to over 200,000 students FAPSChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15825450853996851810noreply@blogger.comBlogger324125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2280142862501892733.post-7231468235726761902017-03-13T13:27:00.002-04:002017-03-13T13:27:26.701-04:00CECU: Shortage of Skills: 58,000 Dental Assistants Needed <div class="blog-header">
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<a class="blog-title-link blog-link" href="http://www.career.org/news/shortage-of-skills-58000-dental-assistants-needed">Shortage of Skills: 58,000 Dental Assistants Needed</a>
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March 10, 2017 - Washington, DC - This month
the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that 7.5 million Americans
are unemployed, while at the same time 5.5 million jobs remain unfilled
in America. This gap in labor exists because employers demand job-ready
employees and millions of prospective employees are simply not able to
bridge the skills gap without appropriate career education and training.
One such career is dental assisting, where career education colleges
and universities produced over half of the academic awards in 2015. </div>
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In
honor of Dental Assistant Recognition week, CECU’s March SOS release
focuses on the need for well-trained dental assistants. With the growing
awareness of the importance of good oral health, the dental assistant
profession has a much faster than average <a href="https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/dental-assistants.htm#tab-1">growth rate of 18%</a>
in the next 10 years. There will be a need for 58,600 trained dental
assistants by 2024. Just in 2015, private sector career colleges and
universities produced 14,944 academic awards in the dental assisting
field, 64% of those produced across all sectors of higher education,
according to <a href="http://www.career.org/campaign.html">CECU research</a>
supported by data from the U.S. Department of Education IPEDS database
and BLS. From 2011-2015, a total of 88,492 academic awards in the dental
assisting field came from career colleges and universities.<br />
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Dental assistants <a href="https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/dental-assistants.htm#tab-1">perform important tasks</a>
in a dentist’s office, and will increasingly be needed to assist
dentists in managing a higher number of patients. From patient care, to
cleaning treatment areas and tools, to clerical tasks such as scheduling
appointments and working on billing, dental assistants help dentist’s
offices function smoothly and allow them to help a higher volume of
patients. Their <a href="https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/dental-assistants.htm#tab-1">median pay</a>
in 2015 was $35,980, right around the median income for all
occupations, and higher than the median pay for other healthcare support
occupations. This, combined with the high expected growth of the
profession, presents a promising outlook for those studying to become
dental assistants.<br />
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As research linking oral health with overall health expands, <a href="https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/dental-assistants.htm#tab-1">BLS expects</a> that the demand for dental services will increase. A <a href="https://www.womenshealth.gov/publications/our-publications/fact-sheet/oral-health.html">fact sheet</a>
from the Office on Women’s Health at the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services expands on the connection between oral and general
health, saying that diseases such as “diabetes, heart disease, HIV,
cancer, and some eating disorders are linked with oral health problems,”
and that “regular dental exams” can help patients avoid such health
issues. In addition, pregnant women should take special care of their
dental health, as they are <a href="https://www.womenshealth.gov/publications/our-publications/fact-sheet/oral-health.html">at risk for conditions such as pregnancy gingivitis</a>. Research is also under way to <a href="https://www.womenshealth.gov/publications/our-publications/fact-sheet/oral-health.html">determine a link</a>
between gum disease and low-birth-weight babies. Men, on the other
hand, are at risk of poor dental health simply by neglecting it more
often than women, according to the <a href="http://www.agd.org/public/OralHealthFacts/files/pdfgenerator.aspx?pdf=FS_MensOralHealth.pdf&id=126693&margin=1">Academy of General Dentistry</a>. The <a href="http://www.agd.org/public/OralHealthFacts/files/pdfgenerator.aspx?pdf=FS_MensOralHealth.pdf&id=126693&margin=1">AGD reports</a> that the “average man brushes his teeth only 1.9 times a day and will lose 5.4 teeth by age 73.”<br />
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“Our
dental assisting program prepares students for a career in dental
assisting through both classroom learning and externships,” said LeeAnn
Rohman, president of High Desert Medical College. “Students leave with
the skills they need to be successful in the field.”<br />
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“As oral
health research and awareness expands, providing students with the
skills needed to enter the rapidly growing dental assisting field
becomes more and more important,” said Steve Gunderson, president and
CEO of CECU. “By providing students with well-rounded training and
degrees in dental assisting, our institutions make a sustainable career
possible for thousands of Americans.”<br />
<br />
<b>About Shortage of Skills </b><br />
Each
month CECU will profile America’s “Shortage of Skills” (SOS) in one key
industry. We will examine industries that are critical to America’s
economic advancement and explain how a well-educated and well-trained
workforce can address these issues. See previous SOS releases <a href="http://www.career.org/news/category/shortage-of-skills">here</a>.<br />
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<b>About Career Education Colleges and Universities (CECU)</b><br />
Career
Education Colleges and Universities (CECU) is a membership organization
of accredited institutions of higher education that provide
postsecondary education with a career focus. CECU’s work supports
thousands of campuses that education millions of students. </div>
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Direct link to article:<a href="http://www.career.org/news/shortage-of-skills-58000-dental-assistants-needed" target="_blank"> http://www.career.org/news/shortage-of-skills-58000-dental-assistants-needed</a></div>
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FAPSChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15825450853996851810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2280142862501892733.post-46970134929084792872017-03-07T15:24:00.002-05:002017-03-07T15:24:28.725-05:00CECU Press Release: CECU Statement on Delayed Deadline for Gainful Employment Requirements <div class="paragraph">
March 7, 2017 – Washington, DC – In response to the <a href="https://ifap.ed.gov/eannouncements/030617GEAnnounce105AddtlSubTimeAEAandGEDisReq.html" target="_blank">announcement</a>
from the U.S. Department of Education’s Federal Student Aid office that
it will extend the deadlines for schools to submit alternative earnings
appeals and disclosures until July 1, Steve Gunderson, president &
CEO of Career Education Colleges and Universities (CECU), said the
following: </div>
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“We very much
appreciate the Department and the Administration recognizing the
problems with this rule. We have asked them to delay the enforcement and
to conduct a review of the unintended consequences of this rule as it
begins to play out. This is very good news for thousands of students who
seek to complete their career education and begin their careers. We are
prepared to share with the Department how this rule treats identical
programs differently based upon the geography and economy of where the
students live. It is time for constructive conversations.”<br />
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Direct link to press release: <a href="http://www.career.org/news/cecu-statement-on-delayed-deadline-for-gainful-employment-requirements" target="_blank">http://www.career.org/news/cecu-statement-on-delayed-deadline-for-gainful-employment-requirements </a>FAPSChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15825450853996851810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2280142862501892733.post-19094562091083459322017-02-14T13:39:00.001-05:002017-02-14T13:39:38.142-05:00U.S. News & World Reports: Compare Nonprofit, For-Profit Online Degree Programs By
<a class="inline-right-tighter" href="http://www.usnews.com/topics/author/jordan-friedman">Jordan Friedman</a> <span class="inline-right-tighter">|</span> Editor
<strong class="hero-pubdate text-smaller">Feb. 13, 2017, at 9:30 a.m. </strong><br />
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To some students, a for-profit <a href="http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education">online degree program</a> seems like a risky option.<br />
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"I've seen a lot of reports for a lot of years about how
for-profit schools have pretty much based their incomes on the ability
for students to get federal financial aid," says 30-year-old Matt
Warner, a cybersecurity and information assurance master's student at
the nonprofit, online <a href="http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/western-governors-university-33394">Western Governors University</a>.<br />
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Though he's personally hesitant about for-profits, he
suggests prospective students focus more on factors such as cost and the
degrees offered.<br />
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For California resident Carlos Ramirez, enrolling in an online doctoral program in health administration at the for-profit <a href="http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/university-of-phoenix-online-campus-372213">University of Phoenix</a>
was a no-brainer. Ramirez previously earned his bachelor's and master's
at the school and was satisfied with its flexibility and student
support.<br />
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Experts say in online education, a school's classification as <a href="http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/articles/2015/02/27/4-questions-to-ask-before-enrolling-in-a-for-profit-online-program">a for-profit</a> versus nonprofit tells prospective online students little about overall quality.<br />
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"I think it's less about the sector and more on how
attentive the institution is to meeting the needs of students, to
understanding best practices, to preparing their faculty for this robust
learning experience," says Karen Pedersen, chief knowledge officer for
the Online Learning Consortium, an organization aiming to improve online
higher education.<br />
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For-profit institutions have faced criticism in recent years for <a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2016-06-23/big-accreditor-of-for-profit-colleges-could-lose-authority">questionable recruitment practices</a>, low graduation rates and high <a href="http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2014/10/01/3-facts-for-students-to-know-about-for-profit-colleges-and-student-debt">student debt</a>.
Though employers today are becoming more receptive to accepting
candidates with for-profit, online degrees, there's still a stigma
around them, experts say.<br />
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[Discover
<a href="http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/articles/2016-08-15/how-employers-view-online-for-profit-bachelors-degrees" target="_blank" title="how employers view for-profit online bachelor's degrees. (//www.usnews.com/education/online-education/articles/2016-08-15/how-employers-view-online-for-profit-bachelors-degrees)">how employers view for-profit online bachelor's degrees.</a>]<br />
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"It’s a distinction that has gotten a lot of press over
the last many years, and I’m not sure that it’s warranted," says Betty
Vandenbosch, president of the for-profit <a href="http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/kaplan-university-260901">Kaplan University</a>, which delivers many degrees online.<br />
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When for-profit online degree programs started becoming
more prevalent around 1999, they accepted almost anybody who applied,
including those who weren't sufficiently prepared for college, says
Kathleen Ives, OLC's CEO and executive director, who has served as
faculty for both for-profits and nonprofits. That, she says, contributed
to low graduation rates and high debt for those who dropped out.<br />
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That initial focus primarily on corporate profits "has
tainted much of the for-profit sector. And not fairly, because the
for-profit institutions are just as diverse as the nonprofit
institutions," says David Schejbal, dean of continuing education,
outreach and e-learning at the University of Wisconsin—Extension, which
coordinates continuing education and online programs across 26 statewide
campuses.<br />
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Things have begun to change at many for-profits, Pedersen says. Overall, quality of <a href="http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/articles/2015/11/16/5-questions-to-ask-about-student-services-in-online-programs">student services</a> ranges in the sector, but many for-profits have started focusing more on student success in addition to attracting applicants.<br />
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Many for-profits, Ives says, now require undergraduate
applicants to complete assessments to determine whether they are ready
for online college. That's how undergraduate admissions works at the
for-profit, online <a href="http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/american-public-university-system-449339">American Public University System</a> for non-military students and those entering with few credits, says Karan Powell, the institution's president.<br />
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[Explore
<a href="http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/articles/2016-09-12/4-things-to-know-about-online-for-profit-education" target="_blank" title="four things to know about for-profit online degree programs. (//www.usnews.com/education/online-education/articles/2016-09-12/4-things-to-know-about-online-for-profit-education)">four things to know about for-profit online degree programs.</a>]<br />
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"We, over time, have made the decision that there are
some demonstrations of college readiness that need to be evident," says
Powell, and retention rates have improved as a result.<br />
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Still, in comparison with nonprofit online programs
overall, admissions at for-profits are generally less selective, says
Mia Ellis, assistant director of admission services at <a href="http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/pennsylvania-state-university-world-campus--97">Pennsylvania State University—World Campus</a>, who has also worked at for-profit schools. Still, she acknowledges that admission into many <a href="http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/articles/2013/07/26/online-mba-programs-may-offer-easier-admissions-path">online programs is easier</a> compared with on-campus offerings.<br />
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For-profit programs have been more likely than nonprofits
to have rolling admissions and academic calendars that don't operate
around the standard semester schedule, experts say – though that format
is now gaining momentum among nonprofits.<br />
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[Learn
<a href="http://www.usnews.com/higher-education/online-education/articles/2017-01-23/5-questions-to-consider-about-online-degree-program-course-schedules" target="_blank" title="how to assess online program course scheduling options. (//www.usnews.com/higher-education/online-education/articles/2017-01-23/5-questions-to-consider-about-online-degree-program-course-schedules)">how to assess online program course scheduling options.</a>]<br />
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Beyond structure, experts say for-profit online programs are more likely to have national rather than regional <a href="http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/articles/2016-11-11/accreditation-of-online-degree-programs-frequently-asked-questions">accreditation</a>. Regional accreditation, which some major for-profits do have, is preferred <a href="http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/articles/2016-05-09/what-employers-think-of-your-online-mba-degree">among employers</a> and other universities if a student transfers.<br />
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And when it comes to tuition and fees, for-profit
programs charged full-time students an average of $16,000 for the
2016-2017 school year, according to <a href="https://trends.collegeboard.org/college-pricing/figures-tables/average-published-undergraduate-charges-sector-2016-17" target="_blank">data from the College Board</a>.
That's compared with $3,520 at two-year public colleges for full-time
in-state students and $9,650 at four-year public colleges for
in-staters, the report found. These data don't distinguish between
online and on-ground programs.<br />
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Out-of-state tuition at public colleges and tuition at
private universities, however, was higher than at for-profit schools in
2016-2017, according to the data.<br />
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Ultimately, a prospective online student's decision
should involve thorough research about for-profit programs'
accreditation, experts say. Students should also compare tuition,
faculty and support services, which can all vary in strength.<br />
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Tami Smith, an online bachelor's student at <a href="http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/colorado-state-university-global-campus--99">Colorado State University—Global Campus</a>,
transferred out of a for-profit online bachelor's program mainly
because she was dissatisfied with the academic support she received, she
says. Her second time around, she read student reviews and found <a href="http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/articles/2016-08-18/4-ways-social-media-can-help-you-choose-an-online-degree-program">useful information online</a>.<br />
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"I read the good reviews and the bad reviews, and just took my time to choose that right school," she says.<br />
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Direct link to article: h<a href="http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/articles/2017-02-13/decide-between-nonprofit-for-profit-online-degree-programs" target="_blank">ttp://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/articles/2017-02-13/decide-between-nonprofit-for-profit-online-degree-programs</a><br />
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FAPSChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15825450853996851810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2280142862501892733.post-91794292365989810102017-02-13T16:00:00.000-05:002017-02-13T16:00:12.876-05:00Inside Higher Educaiton: Cosmetology Group Sues Education Department<h4 class="pane-title">
By<a class="username" href="https://www.insidehighered.com/users/ashley-smith" title="View user profile.">: Ashley A. Smith</a> </h4>
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The
American Association of Cosmetology Schools filed a lawsuit against the
U.S. Department of Education Friday over its gainful employment rule.
The organization, which represents about 750 institutions, is seeking
relief from the regulations.<br />
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The organization argues that gainful employment undercounts
cosmetology graduates' income because many self-employed workers rely on
gratuities and are paid in cash. Many cosmetologists simply underreport
their incomes, according to the organization.<br />
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"A provision that is supposed to protect our students, in fact, hurts
them badly," said Adam Nelson, executive director of AACS, in a news
release. "We are proud that our graduates, many of whom were the first
in their families to attend any kind of post-high school education, are
quite often joining the middle class, establishing themselves in new
beauty businesses and raising families and supporting themselves at a
very good income level over long-lasting careers."<br />
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Direct link to article: <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2017/02/13/cosmetology-group-sues-education-department" target="_blank">https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2017/02/13/cosmetology-group-sues-education-department </a><br />
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FAPSChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15825450853996851810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2280142862501892733.post-73964964207703988332017-02-03T12:20:00.003-05:002017-02-03T12:20:28.283-05:00CECU: Career Education Addresses Shortage of Physical Therapy Assistants
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February 3, 2017 - Washington, DC - This month the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that<a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf"> 7.6 million Americans are unemployed</a>,
while at the same time 5.5 million jobs remain unfilled in America.
This gap in labor exists because employers demand job-ready employees
and millions of prospective employees are simply not able to bridge the
skills gap without appropriate career education and training. One such
career is the expected shortage of physical therapist assistants where <a href="https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/physical-therapist-assistants-and-aides.htm#tab-1" target="_blank">51,400 additional professionals are needed</a> by 2024. </div>
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This is projected to be a very high-growth profession: the BLS estimates a much faster than average <a href="https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/physical-therapist-assistants-and-aides.htm#tab-1">growth rate of 40%</a> over the next decade. This is likely due in large part to health concerns affecting the aging population of baby-boomers, <a href="https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/physical-therapist-assistants-and-aides.htm#tab-6">reports BLS</a>.
The larger population as well is expected to seek out physical therapy
services, both due to activity-related injuries and diseases such as
obesity, a disease <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html">affecting 36.5% of U.S.</a> adults according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.<br /><br />Career Education Colleges and Universities (CECU)’s <a href="http://www.career.org/campaign.html">Campaign to Create 5 Million Career Professionals,</a>
supported by research from the U.S. Department of Education’s IPEDS
database, shows the impact postsecondary career education colleges and
universities have in providing trained physical therapist assistants.
From 2011-2015, the sector graduated 7,283 students with the academic
credentials needed for a career as a physical therapist assistant, and
is projected to produce more than 25,000 graduates in the next decade –
approximately one-half of those needed.<br /><br />Physical therapist
assistants work with patients under the direction of a physical
therapist. Physical therapist assistants administer various treatments
and exercises to help alleviate patients’ symptoms, and report on the
progress of patients to the physical therapist. BLS shows a high median
annual salary of about <a href="https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/physical-therapist-assistants-and-aides.htm#tab-5">$55,000 for physical therapist assistants</a>, higher than both the median salary for healthcare support occupations and the median salary for all occupations.<br /><br />“Physical
therapist assistants are a crucial part of delivering quality care to
patients and helping both adults and children recover from injuries or
disease,” said Stephen South, president of South College. “By studying
to become a physical therapist assistant, students are preparing for a
rewarding career working to improve people's lives.” <br /><br />“The
projections show that this is an excellent time to prepare for and enter
the field of physical therapy. Professionals in this field earn good
wages and have stable jobs,” said Steve Gunderson, president and CEO of
CECU. “Our institutions provide well-trained professionals to fill the
rapidly increasing demand.”<br /><br /><strong>About Shortage of Skills </strong><br />Each
month CECU will profile America’s “Shortage of Skills” (SOS) in one key
industry. We will examine industries that are critical to America’s
economic advancement and explain how a well-educated and well-trained
workforce can address these issues. See previous SOS releases <a href="http://www.career.org/news/category/shortage-of-skills">here</a>.<br /><br /><strong>About Career Education Colleges and Universities (CECU)</strong><br />Career
Education Colleges and Universities (CECU) is a membership organization
of accredited institutions of higher education that provide
postsecondary education with a career focus. CECU’s work supports
thousands of campuses that education millions of students. </div>
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Direct link to article:<a href="http://www.career.org/news/career-education-addresses-shortage-of-physical-therapy-assistants" target="_blank"> http://www.career.org/news/career-education-addresses-shortage-of-physical-therapy-assistants</a></div>
FAPSChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15825450853996851810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2280142862501892733.post-81180053495760985682017-02-02T12:57:00.004-05:002017-02-02T12:57:41.442-05:00Inside Higher Ed: 200 Colleges to Appeal Gainful Employment Ratings<div class="panel-pane pane-node-author">
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More than 200 colleges have given the U.S. Department of Education <a href="https://ifap.ed.gov/eannouncements/013017GainEmployEA104UpdateFinalGEDebtEarnRateInfoFSADC.html" target="_blank">notice</a>
that they will appeal gainful employment ratings that found their
programs to be failing or close to failing. The colleges filed a
required notice of intent to appeal within 14 days of the release of
ratings for 536 individual programs, according to data posted by the
Office of Federal Student Aid Monday.<br />
<br />
Institutions appearing on the list include Vatterott College, Kaplan University and Full Sail University.<br />
<br />
Ratings released by the department <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/01/10/federal-data-show-hundreds-vocational-programs-fail-meet-new-gainful-employment" target="_blank">last month</a>
showed that nearly a tenth of vocational programs evaluated -- mostly
at for-profit institutions -- failed to meet new criteria measuring
whether graduates were able to repay their student loan debt. That puts
those programs at risk of being cut off from access to Title IV federal
aid.<br />
<br />
The gainful employment rule was heavily criticized by Republicans in
Congress, and GOP leaders have listed it among a number of Obama
administration regulations they plan to eliminate or scale back.<br />
<br />
Direct link to article: <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2017/02/01/200-colleges-appeal-gainful-employment-ratings" target="_blank">https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2017/02/01/200-colleges-appeal-gainful-employment-ratings </a><br />
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FAPSChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15825450853996851810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2280142862501892733.post-14703599732178604592017-01-25T12:22:00.001-05:002017-01-25T12:22:20.997-05:00The Washington Post: University of Phoenix sale clears a crucial hurdleJanuary 24, 2017<br />
<br />
<span class="pb-byline" itemprop="author" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person">By <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/danielle-douglas/"><span itemprop="name">Danielle Douglas-Gabriel</span></a></span><br />
<br />
The Higher Learning Commission, a college accreditation agency, has
cleared the way for the $1.1 billion sale of Apollo Education Group,
owner of the University of Phoenix, Western International University and
College for Financial Planning, to a group of investors.<br />
<br />
<div class="interstitial-link">
<i> [<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/02/08/university-of-phoenix-parent-company-to-go-private/?tid=a_inl&utm_term=.e1f4bedadb65">University of Phoenix parent company to go private</a>] </i></div>
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<i> </i> </div>
The
commission notified Apollo on Monday that it voted in favor of an
application filed by the for-profit colleges to ensure they remain
accredited after investors assume control of the parent company,
according to a regulatory filing. All three institutions must submit
quarterly reports to the commission detailing such things as enrollment,
quarterly financials and student retention rates.<br />
“With the receipt of this approval, we have obtained all educational regulatory approvals required,” Apollo said in the <a href="http://investors.apollo.edu/phoenix.zhtml?c=79624&p=irol-sec">regulatory filing</a>. The company anticipates completing the deal in February, subject to satisfying all other closing conditions.<br />
<br />
The
purchase of one of the largest for-profit education companies has been
met with criticism because of the involvement of Vistria Group, a
private equity firm run by former president Barack Obama’s friend Marty
Nesbitt and former deputy education secretary Tony Miller. Vistria is
among a consortium of investors bidding to take the publicly traded
Apollo private, but its ties to the Obama administration sparked
controversy over the Education Department’s objectivity in approving the
deal.<br />
<br />
<div class="interstitial-link">
<i> [<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/12/07/education-department-places-hefty-conditions-on-university-of-phoenix-sale/?utm_term=.8aeccd731573">Education Department places hefty conditions on University of Phoenix sale</a>] </i></div>
<div class="interstitial-link">
<i> </i> </div>
The
Obama administration made holding for-profit colleges accountable for
poor student outcomes and abusive practices a cornerstone of its higher
education policy. Phoenix, like other for-profit schools, has been
battered by government investigations, heightened federal regulation and
poor enrollment.<br />
<br />
In December, the Education Department sent the
presidents of Phoenix and Western a litany of conditions that must be
met by the new owners for the schools to remain in the federal student
aid program. Chief among them is a request that investors provide a
letter of credit from a bank assuring the availability of as much as
$385 million, roughly 25 percent of the federal loans and grants the
schools receive. The letter is meant to protect students and taxpayers
if the school is unable to cover federal student-aid liabilities.<br />
<br />
Education
officials also said the schools will not be allowed to add any new
programs, must cap enrollment levels, submit projected cash flow
statements, produce monthly student rosters, alert the department to any
investigations and commit to a recruitment standard, among other
things. Many of the requests would essentially place the same demands on
the soon-to-be private company as a publicly traded outfit.<br />
<br />
In a <a href="http://hlcommission.org/download/_PublicStatements/U%20of%20Phoenix%20Statement%201-23-2017.pdf">statement</a>,
the Higher Learning Commission said its board approved the application
with the conditions imposed by the Education Department in mind. The
commission is also requiring each school to host a peer review visit
within six months of the transaction closing.<br />
<br />
Almost a year has
passed since Apollo first announced that a group of investors, including
funds affiliated with Apollo Group Management and Najafi Cos., were
offering $9.50 a share in cash for the outstanding shares of the
company. The group upped the acquisition price to $10 per share in May,
which represents a 52 percent premium over Apollo’s closing price on
Jan. 8, 2016, when the board of directors said it was considering its
options.<br />
<br />
The deal has been blessed by Apollo’s board and
shareholders. Once the transaction is completed, Miller, chief operating
officer of Vistria, will become chairman of the Apollo board. He served
as deputy secretary at the Department of Education from 2009 to 2013.<br />
<br />
Direct link to article:<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2017/01/24/university-of-phoenix-sale-clears-a-crucial-hurdle/?utm_term=.97df5802ff0f" target="_blank"> https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2017/01/24/university-of-phoenix-sale-clears-a-crucial-hurdle/?utm_term=.97df5802ff0f </a><br />
FAPSChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15825450853996851810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2280142862501892733.post-62584409150316579522017-01-24T09:28:00.000-05:002017-01-24T09:28:10.349-05:00The University of Miami School of Law: The Implications of the Regulatory Assault on For-Profit Colleges and the Light at the End of the Tunnel<div class="entry-content">
January 24, 2017<br />
<br />
Gabriel A. Lievano – For the past 6 years, the Department of
Education has waged war on for-profit colleges. The Department justifies
the regulatory assault in the name of protecting students from
predatory colleges. The reality is that the regulatory model not only
threatens the closure of many for-profit colleges, but also leaves the
taxpayers to pay the bill, and non-traditional students without
alternative education options.<br />
<br />
Since its early days, the Obama administration sought to rein in
for-profit colleges, amid a sharp rise in students dropping out and
defaulting on loans. In 2010, the administration proposed a plan to
penalize vocational schools that leave students with large debt. After a
long court battle with the private college industry, the plan went into
effect in 2015. <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/obama-administration-takes-aim-at-some-for-profit-colleges-1483995720">The plan</a>
proposes to cut off federal aid for career-training schools if their
alumni’s earnings are low relative to their student-debt burden. The
administration also completed <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/obamas-student-loan-pardon-1478043110">rules</a>
that make it easier for borrowers to discharge their student debt,
under a law known as “borrower defense” or “defense to repayment.”<br />
<br />
Hundreds of for-profit college programs are in danger of closing, as
most of them rely on access to federal student loans and grants for most
of their revenue. One of the most notable closures was Corinthian
Colleges in 2014, which resulted in <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/taxpayer-cost-of-corinthian-collapse-soars-to-350-million-1477627261">taxpayer cost of about $350 million</a>. Taxpayers may receive a similar bill for <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/obamas-for-profit-execution-1472511905">ITT Technical Institute’s closure</a>
in September as government officials have estimated that former
students could seek forgiveness on as much as $500 million in federal
loans. Overall, the Department of Education estimates that the plan will
<a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/taxpayer-cost-of-corinthian-collapse-soars-to-350-million-1477627261">cost taxpayers between $9.5 billion to $21.2 billion</a>.<br />
<br />
Progressives facilitating the bludgeoning on ITT Tech and Corinthian
proclaim themselves as “student-debt liberators.” What they fail to see,
however, are the <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-human-cost-of-the-assault-on-for-profit-schools-1475191488">human costs</a>
of the regulatory assault: the sweat and tears of students who lose
their progress. When colleges like ITT Tech and Corinthian are forced to
close amid regulatory onslaught, many students who were not able to
finish their course of study are not able to transfer their credits to
other institutions. For-profit colleges like ITT serve non-traditional
students like single mothers, veterans, and full-time workers, who
mostly come from low-income backgrounds and have previously attended
community colleges. These students choose for-profit education for the
hands-on training, and for the improved student outcomes over the local
community college.<br />
<br />
Now that the Obama administration has come to an end, for-profit colleges are hoping that the <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/for-profit-colleges-look-to-donald-trump-for-a-pass-1480680001">Trump administration</a>
is the light at the end of the tunnel. While President Trump has yet to
reveal how his administration will handle federal regulations on
for-profit colleges, investors are betting on the easing of regulations.
President Trump’s pick for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos,
provides a good estimate of the future as she has pushed for expanding
private-sector options in primary and secondary education.<br />
<br />
The Obama administration’s targeting of for-profit colleges, while
well-intentioned, has had some disastrous consequences. The consequences
span further than just closure of institutions. Going forward,
lawmakers should relax regulations on the industry, while demanding that
for-profits tighten their admissions standards to avoid admitting
students who are most likely to dropout or default on their loans.<br />
<br />
Direct link to article: <a href="http://business-law-review.law.miami.edu/implications-regulatory-assault-for-profit-colleges-light-tunnel/" target="_blank">http://business-law-review.law.miami.edu/implications-regulatory-assault-for-profit-colleges-light-tunnel/ </a><br />
</div>
FAPSChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15825450853996851810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2280142862501892733.post-80775640143443800362017-01-17T16:52:00.002-05:002017-01-17T16:52:30.773-05:00Inside Higher Education: Dear Betsy<h2 class="pane-title">
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<a class="username" href="https://www.insidehighered.com/users/andrew-kreighbaum" title="View user profile.">By Andrew Kreighbaum</a></div>
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January 17, 2017 </div>
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The
record of Betsy DeVos as an activist and advocate on K-12 education has
been picked over for more than a month. But relatively little is known
about her position on a range of issues that vex higher education policy
makers.<br />
<br />
Tuesday’s confirmation hearing at the U.S. Senate’s Health,
Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will be the first time
President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. secretary of education
has had to answer questions publicly about her thinking on student loan
debt, the role of for-profit colleges and accountability in higher
education. Democrats on the committee plan to question DeVos about her
long history of pursuing policy goals through dark money groups and
political donations -- including to members of both parties, but mostly
to Republicans. However, Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts
Democrat, in a letter this week wrote that she was concerned about
DeVos’s “paper-thin record on higher education and student debt.”<br />
<br />
<em>Inside Higher Ed</em> asked a number of people who work in or closely observe higher education what questions they would like to see DeVos answer.<br />
<br />
<strong>Justin Draeger, president and CEO, National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators</strong><br />
Often, higher education gets overshadowed in confirmation hearings
with the focus being on elementary and secondary education. That’s a
shame because the U.S. Department of Education has become the
fifth-largest holding company in the U.S., with nearly $1.2 trillion in
total assets. What in Ms. DeVos’s background and experience has prepared
her to oversee this enormous lending operation and provide the
appropriate oversight over the Office of Federal Student Aid, the chief
operating officer and the strategic objectives of that organization?<br />
<br />
Given the amount of interaction between financial aid administrators
and the department’s Office of Federal Student Aid, recent inspector
general and Government Accountability Office reports, and congressional
hearings and investigations, we would like to know what DeVos has
planned to improve the financial aid process implemented by Federal
Student Aid. Is she open to taking a wholesale look at restructuring FSA
to better serve students, schools, borrowers and other stakeholders? Is
she open to exploring, with Congress, ways to ensure that this agency
-- which disburses some $150 billion a year in financial aid -- is held
more accountable to the public and other stakeholders? What ideas is she
bringing to the table to improve the financial aid process, including
the financial aid application, funds disbursement, loan servicing and
the myriad other arcane processes that add little value to students or
taxpayers, but add a significant amount of complexity?<br />
<br />
Finally, a common complaint among policy makers and higher education
stakeholders is that the department can do much better in providing data
about student aid programs, student outcomes and benefit utilization
rates. Recently, a government watchdog <a href="http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-17-22" target="_blank">questioned</a> the budgetary estimates of income-driven repayment plans, and <a href="https://www.nasfaa.org/uploads/documents/NASFAALetteronPSLF_1.pdf" target="_blank">we expressed concern</a>
over the incredibly low number of borrowers currently on track for
Public Service Loan Forgiveness. How does Ms. DeVos view the
department’s obligations on data transparency to the public, and what
will she do to improve the data coming out of that agency?<br />
<br />
<strong>King Alexander, president, Louisiana State University</strong><br />
<br />
In order to stop the federalization of public higher education (which
has been occurring for nearly three decades), what role does the
Department of Education have in ensuring that states do not completely
abandon their financial responsibilities to fund their public colleges
and universities?<br />
<br />
<strong>Walter Kimbrough, president, Dillard University</strong><br />
<br />
Will you commit to strengthening the Pell Grant program, including
restoring summer Pell, raising maximum Pell and indexing Pell
permanently to account for inflation?<br />
<br />
What is your understanding of the role of historically black colleges
and universities in American higher education, and do you have ideas on
how to invest in HBCUs?<br />
<br />
<strong>Steve Gunderson, president and CEO, Career Education Colleges and Universities</strong><br />
<br />
The current Department of Education pursued an ideological war
against the postsecondary career schools. In doing so, they shut down
over 870 such schools, reducing enrollment by over 1.4 million. Can you
assure the committee that your department will not conduct a similar war
against any element of higher education?<br />
<br />
Do you believe there should be one set of outcomes metrics for all schools where taxpayer dollars are invested?<br />
<br />
<strong>Mark Huelsman, senior policy analyst, Demos</strong><br />
<br />
For several decades, per-student funding has stagnated or declined in
nearly every state, and with it tuition has continued to rise at public
colleges and universities -- the institutions nearly three in four
students attend. Rising prices and student debt impact students of color
and working-class students more acutely -- affecting aspirations and
relegating some students to greater unmet need, debt and risk of
noncompletion. What, specifically, do you believe is the role of the
federal government in addressing the decline in state funding and
lowering the net price of college at public institutions -- particularly
in an era of stagnant income and wealth for most families? Do you
approve of proposals to provide sufficient grant aid to low- and
middle-income students at public institutions so they can pay for
college with a part-time or summer job? Is there a federal role in
rewarding institutions for graduating high numbers of low-income
students while keeping prices low, and if so, what is that role?<br />
<br />
<strong>Amy Laitinen, director for higher education with the education policy program at New America</strong><br />
<br />
The federal government spends hundreds of billions of dollars every
year to help students go to college. And while there is no question that
college is worth it on average, there are too many low-quality programs
that leave students either degree-less in debt or with credentials that
leave them stuck in poverty-level jobs. What will you do to make sure
that taxpayer dollars are spent at institutions that provide students a
quality education? Do you believe students have the right to know
outcomes from specific programs at specific colleges so they can make
informed choices about where to spend their valuable time and money?<br />
<br />
<strong>David Schafer, student body president, University of Michigan</strong><br />
<br />
I’m specifically interested in how Betsy DeVos would respond to
questions around the Obama administration’s Dear Colleague letters from
2011 and 2016, in which they outlined how universities and colleges
should respond to sexual assault and protect transgender students. Does
she plan to maintain these guidelines? What does she believe is the role
of the Department of Education in addressing and mitigating instances
of campus sexual assault?<br />
<br />
<strong>Bob Shireman, senior fellow at the Century Foundation, former deputy under secretary of education under President Obama</strong><br />
<br />
Do you believe that there is a discernible unit of measure -- let’s
call it a “learning outcome” -- that can be counted and compared across
students and classes? If so, is the measure capable of comparing across
topics and disciplines, such as whether a history class produced more
learning than a biology class?<br />
<br />
<strong>Rudy Fichtenbaum, president, American Association of University Professors; economics professor at Wright State University</strong><br />
<br />
It’s a little hard to know in a sense what to expect from DeVos with
respect to higher education since nearly her entire track record has to
do, really, with supporting privatization of public schools. I’d want to
know what kind of plans she has for providing support for low-income
students through Pell Grants. I’d like to know if she has any concern
about the fact that over half the people teaching in higher education
are part-time and are working for what amount to poverty wages.<br />
<br />
<strong>Mark Schneider, vice president and institutes fellow at American Institutes for Research</strong><br />
<br />
What’s the role of private lending going to be?<br />
<br />
Which regulations are the ones that are going to survive and which
ones need to go away? What’s going to happen to gainful employment?<br />
<br />
What’s going to happen to borrower defense?<br />
<br />
Those two to me, they’re
ripe for revisiting.<br />
<br />
What are we going to do about endowments and the incredible concentration of wealth in the hands of so few universities?<br />
<br />
What do we do when we have high failure rates in open-admission
schools?<br />
<br />
What’s the role of risk-adjusted metrics?<br />
<br />
What is the role of
information in advising students better?<br />
<br />
<strong>Madeleine Kunin, former governor of Vermont and deputy secretary of education under President Clinton</strong>Do you support public education and the mission of the department?<br />
<br />
Title IX and Title IV?<br />
<br />
With her financial support of conservative candidates, can she be a
nonpartisan secretary?<br />
<br />
Or, more bluntly, does she believe the department
should be eliminated?<br />
<br />
What will she do to reduce high student loan debt?<br />
<br />
<strong>Margaret Spellings, president, University of North Carolina System; former education secretary under President George W. Bush</strong><br />
<strong><br /></strong>
As an education reformer, there is much Ms. DeVos can do to encourage
accountability and high standards, but achieving those goals will
depend on winning the support of stakeholders across the country. I
think she can build that support because her focus as a reformer is
squarely on students -- what works best for them, what gives them the
best shot at a quality education and the opportunity to excel.<br />
<br />
<strong>Ann Larson, organizer, the Debt Collective</strong><br />
<br />
Most for-profit schools would not survive without federal student
aid. Do you believe that for-profit colleges should continue to receive
federal funding?<br />
<br />
Student debt cancellation would immediately improve nearly 40 million
Americans’ lives and help the economy. Under what conditions would you
support a jubilee of student loans?<br />
<br />
The Debt Collective organizes with many people of faith who are
united in their opposition to usury. As secretary of education, at what
point would you consider education debt to be usurious?<br />
<br />
You have supported using public funds to create private religious
education. Would you support taxpayer-funded schools run by Muslims?<br />
<br />
If
not, how would you decide which religious views can be supported with
taxpayer dollars?<br />
<br />
<strong>Beth Akers, senior fellow, the Manhattan Institute</strong><br />
<br />
Since DeVos doesn’t have a real track record on higher education,
it’s going to be tough to get a true sense of what we can expect from
her down the road. But given her staunch support of choice in K-12
education, a notion based firmly in market-oriented thinking, I’d expect
her to be sympathetic to both eliminating gainful-employment
regulations and reintroducing private lenders into the federal student
loan program, both of which are bad ideas. I’d like to see the committee
press her on these issues, which would give us a good sense of whether
she’s done her homework on higher education.<br />
<br />
<strong>Gail Mellow, president, LaGuardia Community College</strong><br />
<br />
If asked to define a typical college student, most Americans describe
a recent high school graduate, going to a four-year college and living
on the college campus. However, this represents only a portion of our
nation’s college students. Nearly half of all U.S. college students are
enrolled at a community college. And community college students are
disproportionately among the neediest disadvantaged groups -- living in
poverty, minorities, new immigrants. Paradoxically, community colleges
serve the most academically and financially challenged students in our
nation, while private research colleges receive five times more funding
per student.<br />
<br />
Given this disparity, does Ms. DeVos think community colleges are in
danger of becoming separate and unequal institutions of higher
education? How would she address the relative lack of funding for
community colleges, as compared with other sectors of higher education?<br />
<br />
<strong>Rohit Chopra, former student loans ombudsman, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau</strong><br />
<br />
As secretary, you’ll be the CEO of a trillion-dollar student loan
bank that impacts more than 40 million borrowers, with more assets than
Goldman Sachs. Oddly, the bank hands out contracts to big student loan
companies to collect from borrowers, while also policing them to make
sure borrowers aren’t getting cheated. Do you think it is realistic that
the nation’s top education official can have the expertise to play this
role effectively? Or should these roles be transferred to other
agencies, like the Department of the Treasury, the Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission? In other words, is
it time to break up the trillion-dollar bank?<br />
<br />
<strong>Eloy Ortiz Oakley, chancellor, California Community Colleges</strong><br />
<br />
During the presidential election, large numbers of voters made it
known that they were not connected to the economy and feel they are
losing ground in the era of globalization. America’s community colleges
are the most powerful engines of social mobility in our nation,
providing people from all backgrounds with the ability to prepare for
meaningful and good-paying jobs. How can this administration and your
department empower community colleges to do even more to prepare
students for the jobs of today and tomorrow?<br />
<br />
The California Community Colleges are the largest system of higher
education in the country, and tens of thousands of our 2.1 million
students participate in Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. What
will you and the Department of Education do to ensure that these
students, some of whom have served our nation in the armed forces, will
continue to pursue their educational goals and contribute to the
communities in which they were raised?<br />
<br />
President-elect Trump has made clear that he wants America to embark
on projects that modernize our aging infrastructure, which will create
job opportunities for a broad spectrum of skilled workers. Under your
leadership, how will the department work with America’s community
colleges to invest in the types of career technical education programs
that will align with the infrastructure plans envisioned by the
administration? The success of such a large-scale public infrastructure
program will depend, in large part, on the ability of employers and
colleges to achieve labor supply and demand equilibrium, which will
require close coordination and support by the Departments of Education
and Labor.<br />
<br />
Throughout the nation, College Promise partnerships have brought
communities, businesses, philanthropic organizations and education
partners together to promote college-going cultures and make community
college more affordable. From Tennessee to Long Beach, Calif., these
partnerships have enabled communities to make powerful commitments to
students and families who want to use public higher education as a way
to improve their lives. What will the incoming administration do to
continue the proliferation of these partnerships that are showing
positive results?<br />
<br />
<strong>Wick Sloane, instructor at Bunker Hill Community College and <em>Inside Higher Ed</em> contributor</strong><br />
<br />
What will you do to equalize need-based federal subsidies for college
students?<br />
<br />
Federal subsidies to college students vary wildly. A federal
Pell Grant for the lowest of the low-income students is a maximum of
$5,775. All students at wealthy colleges such as Williams, Yale,
Princeton and Harvard, by federal tax policy alone, receive subsidies of
at least $30,000 per student, regardless of need. This is from tax-free
endowments and tax-deductible donations that colleges are free to spend
for sports sky boxes and indoor golf nets. How will you work with the
Treasury and the IRS to remedy these inequities?<br />
<br />
How quickly will you put in place a federal free and reduced-price
lunch program for eligible low-income college students? If not, will you
support Senator Warren’s proposal for an immediate General
Accountability Office study on college hunger? As you know, the
available data on hunger is alarming. Federal policy agrees that
nutrition is essential for learning in K-12, and the federal government
provides eligible students with free and reduced-price lunch and often
breakfast. Yet these same students lose these meals when they continue
on to higher education for a professional credential or a degree. The
same students often lose a bus or a subway pass. Does this make sense to
you?<br />
<br />
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Direct link to article:<a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/01/17/experts-offer-questions-they-hope-see-asked-trumps-education-secretary-pick" target="_blank"> https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/01/17/experts-offer-questions-they-hope-see-asked-trumps-education-secretary-pick</a><br />
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FAPSChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15825450853996851810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2280142862501892733.post-28726627769562944812017-01-13T09:32:00.002-05:002017-01-13T09:45:52.160-05:00Sun Sentinel: Government decision could put for-profit colleges' accreditation in jeopardyBy <a href="http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sfl-caitlin-r-mcglade-bio-staff.html" target="_blank">Caitlin R. McGlade</a>, Contact Reporter<br />
<br />
January 12, 2017<br />
<br />
Dozens of for-profit colleges in South Florida could lose
accreditation after a federal decision to strip authority from the
agency that approved them.<br />
<br />
Schools, including the Florida
Technical College, Digital Media Arts College and the Lincoln Technical
Institute, must agree to increased government oversight and apply to a
new accreditation agency if they wish to keep their status.<br />
<br />
That label is required to continue receiving federal student aid.
Accredited schools also are more likely to attract high-quality faculty
and students and are more likely to get permission to add academic
programs than those that are not, said Curtis Austin, director of
Florida Association of Postsecondary Schools and Colleges.<br />
<br />
Students
who finish their diplomas within the next 18 months will not be
affected as long as their colleges agree to additional monitoring,
transparency, oversight and accountability measures. The move will not
compromise the quality of their diplomas, according to the U.S.
Department of Education. <br />
<br />
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250 institutions receiving federal student aid earned accreditation
through the agency determined unfit to oversee them. More than 100
career colleges in Florida bear the agency's seal of approval, Curtis
said.<br />
<br />
The U.S. Department of Education said the agency, the
Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools, failed to
properly monitor the institutions it approved and was too lax on student
achievement standards, among other violations.<br />
<br />
"What this
decision reflects is the fact that ACICS was an agency that for years
was little more than a rubber stamp for some highly problematic
colleges," said Ben Miller, senior director for postsecondary education
at the Center for American Progress.<br />
<br />
His Washington, D.C.-based
organization released a report in June that found 90 instances when the
agency named campuses or colleges to its honor roll about the same time
the state or federal government was investigating them.<br />
<br />
That included FastTrain College in Miami. The <a href="http://www.sun-sentinel.com/topic/crime-law-justice/u.s.-department-of-justice-ORGOV0000160-topic.html" id="ORGOV0000160" title="U.S. Department of Justice">U.S. Department of Justice</a>
filed a complaint against the institution in 2014, saying that it hired
strippers and attractive women to persuade men to enroll. The former
president was later convicted of stealing millions in federal financial
aid, according to the report.<br />
<br />
"It gets named on [the agency's] honor roll, and a year later it's being raided by the FBI for fraud," Miller said.<br />
<br />
The
council also accredited Corinthian Colleges, which was ordered in March
to pay more than $1 billion for defrauding its students.<br />
<br />
The
agency appealed the Department of Education's decision, but Secretary
John B. King Jr. rejected it, writing that the council "is not capable
of coming into compliance within 12 months or less." It has appealed the
decision in federal court. <br />
<br />
Advocates for the agency argue that
the decision is an unfair slight on the for-profit college industry that
will shutter independent schools across the nation.<br />
<br />
Colleges
under the agency's watch do not automatically lose their status: they
have 18 months to find another agency to accredit them before the
government cuts off their financial aid as long as they agree to follow
federal requirements in the meantime.<br />
<br />
Florida Technical College,
for example, is currently pursuing accreditation through a different
agency, said James Michael Burkett, president.<br />
<br />
But Steve
Gunderson, president and CEO of Career Education Colleges and
Universities, said many schools won't be able to earn accreditation in
time.<br />
<br />
Getting new accreditation costs up to $50,000 per campus, a price tag that may doom some institutions on its own, he said.<br />
<br />
And
theres's no guarantee that they'll secure the status. Other
accreditation agencies will be overloaded with requests from schools
searching to regain their status, he said.<br />
<br />
"Because of the number
of schools accredited by ACICS, there is no way that all of these
schools can transfer their accreditation during an 18-month period," he
said.<br />
<br />
Colleges may also not get approved for re-accreditation or
may have to make changes to meet standards that differ from agency to
agency, Gunderson said.<br />
<br />
Miller argued that will result in tighter controls on federal spending.<br />
<br />
"Taxpayers
are the ones paying for the federal financial aid students are using at
these schools and so if there is not sufficient oversight, then we're
wasting other people's hard-earned money," Miller said.<br />
<br />
Direct link to article: <a href="http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/fl-colleges-lose-accreditation-20170112-story.html" target="_blank">http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/fl-colleges-lose-accreditation-20170112-story.html </a>FAPSChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15825450853996851810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2280142862501892733.post-3393164013242859522017-01-11T15:28:00.000-05:002017-01-11T15:28:05.636-05:00Inside Higher Ed: ACICS- Accredited Colleges Meet Federal Deadline<div class="section clearfix">
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January 10, 2017 </div>
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The U.S. Department of Education last month <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2016/12/13/education-secretary-drops-recognition-accreditor" target="_blank">finalized its decision</a>
to terminate the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and
Schools, a controversial national accrediting agency that oversaw
Corinthian Colleges, ITT and other failed for-profits.<br />
<br />
Before the end of December, all remaining ACICS institutions filed
paperwork with the department to retain their federal aid eligibility
for 18 months while seeking a new accreditor, the department said this
week. The roughly 245 colleges collectively received $4.76 billion in
federal aid during 2015.<br />
<br />
Ted Mitchell, the U.S. under secretary of education, said in an
interview that he was encouraged by the transition process so far for
ACICS-accredited colleges.<br />
<br />
“The institutions are taking their responsibilities seriously,” he
said. “We’re working to make this transition as successful as possible.”<br />
<br />
Most of the colleges have <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/10/06/hundreds-colleges-many-profits-seek-new-accreditor" target="_blank">begun seeking approval</a>
from the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges, a
national accrediting agency. Michale McComis, the commission’s executive
director, said last week that 180 ACICS-accredited institutions have
formally initiated the process. He expects that number to grow to 210
colleges by the end of January.<br />
<br />
Some experts on for-profit higher education have predicted that
substantial numbers of ACICS-accredited institutions will fail to find a
new agency home within 18 months. One higher education lawyer said that
challenge remains, and that the department had overplayed its
celebration of ACICS institutions successfully completing their federal
aid extension paperwork.<br />
<br />
Mitchell, however, said the process of getting roughly 245
institutions to sign provisional Program Participation Agreements was
complex and required collaboration between the feds and ACICS-approved
colleges. The agreements include monitoring and reporting requirements
the department said are intended to protect taxpayers and students.<br />
<br />
In addition, Mitchell said he was confident that well-run
institutions among the group “will have the time to secure
accreditation.”<br />
<br />
ACICS has sued to block the department’s decision to de-recognize the accreditor. A judge last month <a href="http://www.acics.org/news/content.aspx?id=6817" target="_blank">denied a request</a> from ACICS for a temporary injunction.<br />
<br />
It’s unclear if the incoming Trump administration would be able to
overturn the department’s move to eliminate ACICS, or if it would seek
to try.<br />
<br />
Direct link to article: <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2017/01/10/acics-accredited-colleges-meet-federal-deadline" target="_blank">https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2017/01/10/acics-accredited-colleges-meet-federal-deadline </a><br />
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FAPSChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15825450853996851810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2280142862501892733.post-40365301341259547892017-01-11T15:24:00.003-05:002017-01-11T15:24:51.835-05:00 CECU Press Release: CECU Statement on the Release of Gainful Employment Rates
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January 9, 2017 – Washington, DC – Following
the U.S. Department of Education’s release of gainful employment rates,
CECU president and CEO Steve Gunderson released the following statement</div>
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“The
Department’s action today is disappointing and disrespectful. While the
Department has every right to share debt-to-earnings rates with
schools, the Department should provide every school with the 14 days to
file a notice of appeal, the 60 days to file the appeal, and the
appropriate time for the Department to review such evidence and rule on
the appeal before any public disclosure is made.<br /><br />“The
Department’s decision to publish a list of schools failing their initial
calculations before the process is complete makes clear this is all
about political motivations and harming institutions, and has nothing to
do with expanding higher education access and opportunity or creating
sound public policy. We had hoped this Department would comply with the
timelines and procedures it had established. Unfortunately we should
not have expected even this minimum level of decency from them.<br /><br />“Despite
the Department’s attempts to obscure the truth, the fact remains:
students that attend career education colleges and universities graduate
at three times the rate of their peers attending 2-year public
institutions and default at lower rates. It is time to stop the
war. Community colleges and career colleges each have an appropriate and
important role in serving our postsecondary students.” </div>
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<br /></div>
Direct link to article: <a href="http://www.career.org/news/cecu-statement-on-the-release-of-gainful-employment-rates">http://www.career.org/news/cecu-statement-on-the-release-of-gainful-employment-rates</a>
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FAPSChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15825450853996851810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2280142862501892733.post-39596096662240461822016-12-19T15:42:00.002-05:002016-12-19T15:42:22.809-05:00U.S. Department of Education: Education Department Announces Final Rule on State Authorization of Postsecondary Distance Education, Foreign Locations<div class="panel-pane pane-entity-field pane-node-field-release-date pr-date">
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<span class="date-display-single" content="2016-12-16T00:00:00-05:00">December 16, 2016</span></div>
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The U.S. Department of Education today <a href="http://www2.ed.gov/documents/press-releases/07222016-state-authorization-nprm.pdf">released final regulations</a> to improve oversight and protect <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=80">more than 5.5 million distance education students</a>
at degree-granting institutions including nearly 3 million exclusively
online students by clarifying the state authorization requirements for
postsecondary distance education.<br />
<br />
To ensure that institutions offering distance education are legally authorized and monitored by states, as required by the <a href="http://www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/leg/hea08/index.html">Higher Education Act</a>, the final regulations clarify state authorization requirements for institutions to participate in the Department’s<a href="https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/"> federal student aid programs</a>. The regulations also address state and federal oversight of American colleges operating in foreign locations worldwide.<br />
<br />
“We’re proud that these regulations build on good ideas from
stakeholders across the nation that balance accountability and
flexibility for institutions as they seek to better serve students and
taxpayers,” said <a href="http://www2.ed.gov/news/staff/bios/mitchell.html">U.S. Under Secretary of Education Ted Mitchell.</a><br />
<br />
In 2006, Congress abolished a rule restricting access to federal
student aid for distance education programs. Since then, the number of
students enrolled in online degree programs has significantly
increased. By 2014, more than half of students at for-profit
institutions were <a href="http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d15/tables/dt15_311.15.asp">enrolled in exclusively distance education courses</a>,
compared with an estimated 9 percent of students in public
institutions and 15 percent of students in private nonprofit
institutions.<br />
<br />
State authorization is a longstanding requirement in the Higher
Education Act that requires institutions to be authorized in the state
in which they are located as a condition for eligibility to receive
Title IV Federal student aid. While all higher education institutions
must have state authorization in the states in which they are
physically located, there are no federal regulations for distance
education providers in states where the institutions are not located. <br />
<br />
The final regulations close this loophole by:<br />
<ul>
<li>Requiring institutions offering distance education or
correspondence courses to be authorized by each state in which the
institution enrolls students, if such authorization is required by the
state. The regulation recognizes authorization through participation in
a state authorization reciprocity agreement, as long as the agreement
does not prevent a state from enforcing its own laws. </li>
<li>Requiring institutions to document the state process for resolving student complaints regarding distance education programs.</li>
<li>Requiring public and individualized disclosures to enrolled and
prospective students in distance education programs, including adverse
actions taken against the school, the school’s refund policies, and
whether each program meets applicable state licensure or certification
requirements. The regulation will also require schools to explain to
students the consequences of moving to a state where the school is not
authorized, which could include loss of eligibility for federal student
aid.</li>
<li>Requiring that foreign branch campuses or locations be authorized
by the appropriate foreign government agency and, if at least half of a
program can be completed at the foreign location or branch campus, be
approved by the accrediting agency and reported to the state where the
main campus is located.</li>
</ul>
The Department received 139 comments from postsecondary institutions
and associations, distance education advocates, student and consumer
advocacy groups, and State attorneys general. These comments
concerned various provisions in the proposed rule (e.g., state
authorization reciprocity agreements, state authorization, consumer
complaint systems, and consumer disclosures), and the final rule
reflects consideration of these comments and perspectives. <br />
<br />
The Department previously regulated on state authorization of both
physical locations and distance education in 2010, but a federal court
vacated the distance education portion of the rule on procedural
grounds in 2011. The other portions of the 2010 state authorization
rule relating to physical locations were implemented last year.
Similar to the final rule, the 2010 physical locations rule also
required institutions to be authorized by states having a state-based
consumer complaint system.<br />
<br />
These final regulations further a longstanding regulatory effort by
the Department to support state oversight of schools that offer
distance or correspondence education and protect students in those
programs.<br />
<br />
The <a href="http://www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/reg/hearulemaking/2012/pii-stateauth-unofficial-nfr.pdf">final regulations</a> will be published in the <em>Federal Register</em> on Dec. 19.<br />
<br />
Direct link to article: <a href="http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/education-department-announces-final-rule-state-authorization-postsecondary-distance-education-foreign-locations" target="_blank">http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/education-department-announces-final-rule-state-authorization-postsecondary-distance-education-foreign-locations </a></div>
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FAPSChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15825450853996851810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2280142862501892733.post-33096516506194293662016-12-13T10:25:00.002-05:002016-12-13T10:25:25.322-05:00U.S. Department of Education: <h2>
<b><span style="font-weight: normal;">Education Department Establishes Enhanced Federal Aid Participation Requirements for ACICS-accredited Colleges</span></b></h2>
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<span class="date-display-single" content="2016-12-12T00:00:00-05:00">December 12, 2016</span></h4>
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Beginning today, the U.S. Department of Education will inform colleges accredited by the <a href="http://www.acics.org/default.aspx">Accrediting Council on Independent Colleges and Schools</a>
(ACICS) of additional operating conditions required for continued
participation in the federal student aid programs. These new provisions
will apply to ACICS-accredited institutions and follow <a href="http://www2.ed.gov/news/staff/bios/king.html">U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King Jr.'s</a> final <a href="http://www2.ed.gov/documents/acics/final-acics-decision.pdf">decision to withdraw federal recognition</a> of the accrediting agency.<br />
<br />
Although ACICS is no longer a federally recognized accrediting
agency, the Department may provisionally certify ACICS-accredited
institutions for continued participation in the federal student aid
programs for up to 18 months from the date of the Secretary's final
decision. This 18-month provisional certification period allows
institutions to seek accreditation from another federally recognized
accrediting agency.& During this period of provisional
certification, the Department will require the ACICS-accredited
institutions to comply with additional conditions that are designed to <a href="http://blog.ed.gov/2016/12/college-accreditation-update/">protect students</a>
and safeguard taxpayer dollars. These conditions include additional
monitoring, transparency, oversight and accountability measures. Only
ACICS-accredited institutions that agree to these conditions may
continue to offer Federal Loans and Pell Grants.<br />
<br />
The Department's Federal Student Aid office will promptly begin
sending provisional program participation agreements (PPAs) to the
affected institutions, which will have 10 days to respond affirmatively
to the new agreements or will lose eligibility for federal student aid
programs.<br />
The <a href="http://www2.ed.gov/documents/acics/ppa-provisions.pdf">additional PPA conditions</a>
establish triggers tied directly to milestones in the accreditation
process to ensure that institutions not on track to receive
accreditation from a federally-recognized accrediting agency within 18
months are subject to progressively stronger student and taxpayer
protections. During the term of their provisional PPAs, institutions
must also abide by requirements previously enforced by ACICS.<br />
<br />
Within 30 days, all ACICS-accredited institutions will be required to
submit teach-out plans for helping students complete their academic
programs elsewhere if necessary, and submit information about recent and
ongoing investigations to ensure the Department is aware of key risks
in this new environment of reduced oversight.<br />
<br />
Additional conditions triggered by institutions missing milestones on
the path to obtaining accreditation from a federally recognized
accreditor include:<br />
<ul>
<li>Submitting teach-out agreements to ensure a path to completion for students in the event of closure;</li>
<li>Providing enhanced disclosures to students regarding potential loss of federal student aid eligibility;</li>
<li>Limiting enrollment of new students;</li>
<li>Submitting monthly student rosters and a record retention plan; and</li>
<li>Posting a letter of credit to protect against taxpayer losses associated with school closure.&</li>
</ul>
"Protecting and <a href="http://blog.ed.gov/2016/12/letter-to-acics-students/">supporting students</a>
throughout their education is the Department's chief priority. When we
find that an accrediting agency is not effectively protecting students,
and is putting taxpayer funding at risk, we will use every tool we have
to hold it accountable--just as Congress requires and families expect,"
said <a href="http://www2.ed.gov/news/staff/bios/mitchell.html">U.S. Under Secretary of Education Ted Mitchell</a>.
"In this case, that means that we more closely monitor their schools in
the absence of a reliable accreditor. During this transition, we will
do everything we can to help students continue on the path to complete
their programs."<br />
<br />
<h2>
ACICS No Longer Recognized as Federal Aid "Gatekeeper"</h2>
Today, <a href="http://www2.ed.gov/news/staff/bios/king.html">U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King Jr.</a>
informed ACICS of his decision regarding its appeal of the Senior
Department Official's Sept. 22 decision to end federal recognition of
the accrediting agency. His determination is consistent with the
Department's accreditation staff recommendation and the recommendation
of the <a href="http://sites.ed.gov/naciqi/">National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity</a>
(NACIQI), a bi-partisan, independent advisory board appointed by
Congress. Secretary King's decision is the Department's final action.
Effective immediately, ACICS is no longer a federally recognized
accrediting agency, and can no longer serve as a "gatekeeper" of
institutional eligibility for federal student aid programs.<br />
<br />
In his decision, Secretary King noted, "I find ACICS to be out of
compliance with numerous agency criteria. Because of the nature and
scope of ACICS's pervasive noncompliance, I further conclude that ACICS
is not capable of coming into compliance within 12 months or less, even
if I renewed its recognition for an additional 12 months." He added,
"The interests of students are of foremost concern to me and this
Department, but students' interests are best served by proper
application of the recognition criteria. This is also required by law."<br />
<br />
As the <a href="https://opeweb.ed.gov/aslweb/finalStaffReports.cfm?aID=15&mid=68">accreditation staff analysis</a>
of ACICS noted, the Department identified significant areas of concern,
including insufficient institutional monitoring, failure to meet its
Title IV responsibilities, lax enforcement of the agency's existing
accrediting standards, particularly the student achievement standard,
and the rigor of the agency's accreditation and pre-accreditation
standards. In accordance with agency recognition renewal procedures,
this analysis was shared with NACIQI and informed its recommendation to
withdraw federal recognition of ACICS.<br />
<br />
ACICS accredits approximately 250 institutions participating in federal student aid programs according to information from the <a href="https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/">College Scorecard</a> and the <a href="http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/Search.aspx">Department's institutional database</a>. These institutions enroll roughly 300,000 undergraduate students who receive federal aid.<br />
<h2>
Strengthening the Accreditation System </h2>
As part of an ongoing commitment to strengthen the transparency and
rigor of accreditation for colleges and universities, the Department has
taken a series of steps to promote outcomes-driven accountability, such
as:<br />
<ul>
<li><strong>Streamlining the process for accreditors to share information about institutional statuses.</strong>
Institutional accreditors are now required to submit decision letters
when they place Title IV eligible institutions on probation. The
Department will soon begin to post online all publicly releasable
portions of such letters.<br /> </li>
<li><strong>Publishing each accreditor's standards for evaluating student outcomes.</strong>
The Department has published each federally recognized agency's stated
student achievement measures, including any specific thresholds.
Accreditors are required by statute to set standards for student
achievement for schools to maintain their accreditation status. Yet
there are significant differences in the form, specificity, and
performance levels among accreditors. Under current law, the Department
is barred from establishing any criteria for agency standards of student
achievement. This allows some accreditors to set low or
difficult-to-measure thresholds to maintain accreditation status, and
others to rely on reviews of thresholds established by the institutions
they accredit. Shining a spotlight on current standards is an initial
step toward strengthening them. <br /></li>
<li><strong>Publishing key student and institutional metrics for postsecondary institutions arranged by accreditors.</strong> In June, the Department <a href="http://sites.ed.gov/ous/2016/06/getting-graphic-with-new-accreditor-dashboards/">published "accreditor dashboards"</a>
based largely on data largely from the College Scorecard, designed to
help policymakers, experts, and the public better understand the student
outcomes of institutions that are approved by particular accrediting
agencies. These dashboards illustrate the performance of all colleges
and universities in each accreditor's institutional portfolio relevant
to those measures.<br /></li>
<li><strong>Promoting greater emphasis on outcomes within current accreditor review processes.</strong>
Staff in the Office of Postsecondary Education now have access to
critical outcomes data, state and federal litigation reports, and other
information about each agency's schools prior to conducting their
reviews. This information helps Department staff determine which
questions to ask accreditors in preparation for reviews, and helps them
evaluate accreditor effectiveness, especially with respect to struggling
institutions. Through the accreditor dashboards, the Department
supplied outcomes information to NACIQI in advance of its June 2016
meeting to support its training and policy development activities, to
help it frame a policy agenda regarding the agency recognition process,
and for its own evaluation of accreditor standards and processes. In
addition, the Department, within the scope of its current authority, has
encouraged accreditors, to apply outcomes-directed measures in
accreditation and monitoring of institutions that have weak outcomes.</li>
</ul>
<h2>
Shared Responsibility in Ensuring Institutional Accountability </h2>
Despite the Department's efforts to strengthen the accreditation
system, more work remains. Congress, states, and accreditors must also
join in these efforts.<br />
<br />
States play an important role in overseeing colleges and
universities. And they must take seriously their long-standing role in
consumer protection through a robust state authorization and oversight
process, as well as ensure active compliance and monitoring of
institutions doing business in their states. There is significant
opportunity for state attorneys general and state higher education
authorizing and licensure bodies to strengthen their coordination and
collaboration with one another within and across states in an effort to
identify problems, protect students, and hold schools accountable. The
Department stands ready to support those efforts.<br />
<br />
All accreditors must raise the bar for quality, promote transparency,
and renew their focus on student outcomes--not just inputs. And all
accreditors must take seriously their responsibility to monitor and take
swift action against schools that attempt to defraud their students.<br />
<br />
Congress must do more to protect students from unscrupulous
institutions that deceive students into taking on debt they will never
be able to repay and stick taxpayers with the bill. We must strengthen,
not weaken, accountability in higher education. In November 2015, the
Department issued a set of <a href="http://www2.ed.gov/admins/finaid/accred/exec-actions-factsheet.doc">legislative recommendations</a>
for strengthening accreditation, which include strengthening
outcomes-driven and focused review and recognition of accreditors;
requiring robust teach-out plans and reserve funds for high-risk
institutions; standardizing terminology and reporting of accreditation
actions and key outcomes; and increasing transparency on an expanded set
of accreditation material and actions.<br />
<br />
Direct link to article: <a href="https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/education-department-establishes-enhanced-federal-aid-participation-requirements-acics-accredited-colleges" target="_blank">https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/education-department-establishes-enhanced-federal-aid-participation-requirements-acics-accredited-colleges </a><br />
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</h1>
FAPSChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15825450853996851810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2280142862501892733.post-88501512694134462132016-12-13T10:20:00.001-05:002016-12-13T10:20:34.582-05:00Press Release: CECU Statement on Department’s ACICS Decision
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December 13, 2016 - Washington, DC - The below statement can be attributed to Steve Gunderson, president and CEO of CECU:</div>
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“In
denying ACICS’s appeal, the U.S. Department of Education continues
their campaign to inflict as much harm as possible on students attending
private sector higher education before they leave office.<br /><br />“The
political appointees behind this decision will not have to bear the cost
of this decision. Instead it will fall on students, dedicated faculty
and staff, and dozens of small business, when hundreds of campuses are
unable to get reaccredited. And ultimately the American taxpayer will
once again be forced to pick up the tab for these actions.<br /><br />"No
Administration has politicized education or accreditation like the
current one. Since the November election the Department has forcibly
shutdown two colleges, released faulty and biased gainful employment
data, and attached over burdensome and stringent conditions on the sale
of a major institution to new owners.<br /><br />“To act in such a partisan
and biased manner does nothing to help new students. Instead of working
with stakeholders on all sides of the issue and creating solutions that
preserves access, the Department takes the path of greatest
destruction. We are hopeful that in 2017, the new Administration and the
new Congress will create a new era of constructive collaboration that
will result in public policies that survive beyond the politics of any
given Administration.”</div>
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Direct link to article: <a href="http://www.career.org/news/cecu-statement-on-departments-acics-decision" target="_blank">http://www.career.org/news/cecu-statement-on-departments-acics-decision </a></div>
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FAPSChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15825450853996851810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2280142862501892733.post-54584709409925768682016-12-08T10:05:00.002-05:002016-12-08T10:05:42.257-05:00Inside Higher Education: Completion and the Value of College<div class="panel-pane pane-node-author">
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By<a class="username" href="https://www.insidehighered.com/users/paul-fain" title="View user profile."> Paul Fain</a></div>
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December 8, 2016 </div>
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The national college completion agenda has reached an inflection point. </div>
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Republican control of the White House, U.S. Congress and most state
capitols likely means less focus on the production of higher education
credentials, at least those earned at traditional, four-year colleges.<br />
<br />
Job training almost certainly will get more attention than college
completion in coming years. But those two goals can be compatible. And
the completion push already has begun to include looking at what happens
to students after they graduate.<br />
<br />
<em>Inside Higher Ed</em> spoke with 20 experts who work on college
completion from a wide range of perspectives (they are listed below).
Some common themes emerged.<br />
<br />
The movement and its message have evolved during the seven or so
years since the Obama administration joined with the Lumina Foundation
and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to go all in on a broad
effort to increase the proportion of Americans who hold a meaningful
postsecondary credential.<br />
<br />
The White House at times appeared to focus on the bachelor’s degree
in its completion push, particularly early on. But certificates and
associate degrees got more attention from Washington in recent years.
And this administration did more to elevate community colleges than any
previous one, even proposing a national free community college plan
based on Tennessee’s completion and work force development-grounded free
community college scholarship.<br />
<blockquote>
"The job of the community college is going to be more important in
the new administration … The administration is going to challenge us to
be better connected to the economy and work force needs. But that’s
something we’re doing already."<br />
<em>-- Eloy Ortiz Oakley, president of Long Beach Community College and incoming chancellor of California's community college system</em><br />
</blockquote>
Likewise, in 2014 Lumina <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2016/04/11/lumina-report-college-completion-goal" target="_blank">added</a>
“high-quality” certificates to its annual tabulation of progress toward
the foundation’s national goal for 60 percent of Americans to hold a
college credential by 2025.<br />
<br />
That goal, which mirrors one set by the White House, is likely out of
reach. In 2014, 45.3 percent of working-age adults held a degree or a
job-earning certificate, according to the <a href="http://strongernation.luminafoundation.org/report/2016/" target="_blank">most recent data</a> from Lumina.<br />
<br />
In 2008, Lumina’s metric showed 37.9 percent of Americans holding at
least an associate degree, meaning degree attainment is up 2.5 percent
during the last six years (4.9 percent of Americans held a high-quality
certificate in 2014).<br />
<br />
College completion rates have begun to climb after a two-year slide.
The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center this month said the <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2016/12/05/college-completion-rates-recover-after-slide" target="_blank">six-year completion rate grew</a> to 54.8 percent, an increase of roughly two percentage points over the previous year.<br />
<br />
While those tepid improvements aren’t all that exciting, the numbers are moving in the right direction as <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2016/05/24/enrollments-slide-particularly-older-students" target="_blank">college enrollments have slid</a>,
largely due to the collapse of for-profit higher education and the
gradual economic recovery since the recession. College enrollments
typically go down when the job market improves.<br />
<blockquote>
"The question nobody seems to be able to answer is what is the
'right' graduation rate, and I would argue that the answer is 'it
depends.' There is no single right or wrong rate, since college
completion is influenced by a multitude of factors in addition to
quality. At what point do we compromise quality or access in the name of
higher completion rates? At what point do we drive the cost so high in
order to solve one problem that we end up creating another problem?"<br />
--<em> Diane Auer Jones, senior fellow at the Urban Institute and former
Education Department official during the George W. Bush administration</em><br />
</blockquote>
The completion agenda also has taken root across much of the academy,
adding completion to student access as primary goals for higher
education.<br />
<br />
Many say helping ensure that more students get to graduation was not
in the past viewed as central to the jobs of faculty members or even
college administrators. That view has changed to a substantial extent
(at times provoking worries about a cheapening of college credentials to
<a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/11/07/adjunct-says-he-was-fired-insisting-rigor-his-course" target="_blank">meet completion demands</a>).
Hence the demise of the old trope “look to your left, look to your
right, because one of you won't be here by the end of the year.”<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, there’s a growing feeling among higher education experts
and policy makers of both major political parties that a singular goal
of having more Americans earn college credentials isn’t enough.<br />
<br />
For one thing, achievement gaps between wealthier white students and
their lower-income, more diverse peers have persisted. Academic quality
remains a variable, raising the question of what, exactly, students are
completing. And increasingly, higher education is under pressure to
demonstrate the value of college credentials in the job market.<br />
<br />
The Obama administration <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/06/25/education-department-says-rating-system-will-be-consumer-tool-rather-comparison" target="_blank">tried unsuccessfully</a>
to link federal financial aid availability to how colleges stack up on
student outcomes, including completion rates and graduates’ earnings
data. And the White House was able to push through regulations that
would sanction for-profits and vocational, nondegree programs at
community colleges that fail to meet thresholds for graduates’ ability
to repay their loans.<br />
<br />
The so-called gainful employment rule probably won’t be the last
attempt by the feds to hold colleges accountable for their affordability
and for the job-market value of the credentials they issue. Meanwhile,
performance-based funding formulas -- some of which include data on
graduates’ wages -- are on the books in <a href="http://www.ncsl.org/research/education/performance-funding.aspx" target="_blank">more than 30 states</a>.<br />
<blockquote>
"There are fairly clear biases [among Republicans] about moving
beyond completion, moving beyond higher education’s comfort zone."<br />
--<em>Tony Carnevale, director of Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce</em><br />
</blockquote>
Yet support for the college completion agenda could wane if, as many
suspect, an administration led by Donald J. Trump were to say that too
many people are attending college. Experts say big spending on
infrastructure, which the president-elect’s team has discussed, could be
heavily focused on jobs for people with high school diplomas, not
college credentials -- a substantial portion of Trump voters.<br />
Equally challenging is the general public’s loss of confidence in the
value of higher education. While data show that college degrees are
increasingly the ticket to the middle class, just 42 percent of
Americans say college is necessary for success in the work force, a
13 percent drop since 2009, <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2016/09/14/survey-decline-public-view-college-essential" target="_blank">according to polling</a> by Public Agenda.<br />
<br />
Whether or not the college completion momentum continues could depend
on how “college” is defined. One-year certificates earned at a
community college or for-profit institution count as “college,” too.<br />
<br />
Leaders at the Gates and Lumina Foundations say they are undeterred about the completion agenda.<br />
<br />
“We’re doubling down,” said Dan Greenstein, director of education and
postsecondary success at Gates. He cited “unassailable facts” that
“educational attainment tracks directly with earnings.”<br />
<br />
<strong>Messaging on College Completion Is Shifting</strong><br />
College affordability, student debt and the likelihood of getting a
well-paying job after graduation have dominated conversations about
higher education in recent years.<br />
Those measures of student success and accountability, particularly
with an emphasis on a credential’s value in the labor market, will need
to be at the core of the completion agenda for it to remain relevant.<br />
<blockquote>
"One of the most important ways to have good relationships with
employers is to have direct personal relationships between faculty
members and employers. The businesses don’t have any other way to
communicate to the world about what they need besides platitudes and
gross generalizations."<br />
<em>-- Steven L. Johnson, president of Sinclair Community College</em><br />
</blockquote>
In addition, the push for more students to complete college is a
comfortable reform focus for the higher education industry, said Tony
Carnevale, director of Georgetown University Center on Education and the
Workforce.<br />
<br />
“This is the kind of problem you want to have,” he said of the higher
education industry, arguing that completion also misses the larger
concern about value. He calls the push "industrial hygiene,” an attempt
to clean up a self-serving issue.<br />
<br />
The next iteration of the completion agenda, according to Steve
Gunderson, president and CEO of Career Education Colleges and
Universities, the for-profit sector’s primary trade group, includes a
longer list of imperatives: retention, completion, employment, repayment
and student satisfaction.<br />
<br />
And the word “college” more often than not should be replaced by “postsecondary skills,” he said.<br />
At the same, time, some observers say higher education has yet to
adequately resolve even first-order questions about how its access and
student success missions should fit together. As budgets tighten,
particularly at public universities and small private colleges, there
often are trade-offs between the two and tough decisions to make.
Legitimate concerns about the completion push often are conflated with
just hewing to the status quo.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, the nation’s widening political divisions haven’t helped advance the crucial discussion about the purpose of college.<br />
<blockquote>
"Strident partisanship on the left and right is a tremendous
obstacle. We have lost our appetite in this country to understand across
boundaries."<br />
<em>--Alison Kadlec, senior vice president and director of higher education and work force programs at Public Agenda</em><br />
</blockquote>
<strong>State and Local Governments Will Continue the Completion Push, as Will Colleges Themselves</strong><br />
College completion is a big part of the growing interest in
performance-based funding at the state level, particularly in red states
like Tennessee, which has perhaps the nation’s most robust completion
policies.<br />
<br />
Lawmakers in many of these states view college completion as a work
force issue. Employers need more skilled workers, and for now, skills
are represented by credentials. There also is bipartisan agreement that
college outcomes need to improve, including along equity lines. That’s
unlikely to change, given worries about the skills gap, job creation and
income inequality.<br />
<br />
“Postsecondary learning is more important than ever before,” said Jamie Merisotis, president and CEO of the Lumina Foundation.<br />
<br />
Lumina has shifted its approach to more directly address the work force side of completion. For example, the foundation’s <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2016/10/17/lumina-revises-plan-completion-push" target="_blank">new strategic plan</a>
focuses on how to reach adults who hold some college credits but no
credential, as well as people who have no higher education experience.
To meet its completion goal, Lumina will need to increase attainment in
the former group by 6.1 million and 5.1 million in the latter.<br />
<blockquote>
"Higher education continues to be a path into the middle class. … I don’t know how we do that without education."<br />
<em>-- Dan Greenstein, director of education and postsecondary success for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation</em><br />
</blockquote>
Likewise, Tennessee <a href="http://driveto55.org/initiatives/tennessee-reconnect/" target="_blank">has expanded</a> its free community college program to include slots for returning adult students.<br />
<br />
And while free college for all (with annual family income of up to
$125,000) is on hold for now, with the defeat of the presidential
candidate who championed it, Hillary Clinton, college promise programs
like Tennessee’s are spreading to other states and many local
communities.<br />
<br />
As the college completion agenda matures, several experts said it
will move toward a focus on jobs and on the nitty-gritty of implementing
the next phases of reforms that began years ago.<br />
<br />
For example, as colleges sought to improve graduation rates during
the last eight years, they were actually looking at student progression
and retention, said Ellen Wagner, vice president of research for
Hobsons, a company that works on student success, including the use of
data analytics.<br />
<blockquote>
"The completion agenda is deeply ingrained in the operating systems of our institutions."<br />
<em>-- David Baime, senior vice president for government relations and
policy analysis for the American Association of Community Colleges</em><br />
</blockquote>
That work has a financial benefit for colleges, because each student
retained means one more who doesn’t need to be recruited, which can be
expensive. Quitting that effort would be counterproductive.<br />
<br />
One way to view the completion agenda, Wagner said, is an effort to
“reduce friction” and barriers as students move through a P-20 education
system. That’s a big job, she said. “We’re never going to be done with
this.”<br />
<br />
Don’t expect the federal government to drop its interest in completion, either.<br />
<br />
It’s a safe bet that congressional Republicans, who may well be the
driving force in federal higher education policy for the next four years
if a Trump administration focuses on other topics, will seek a smaller
role for the feds. But Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and
Representative Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, who will lead the two
congressional education committees, are both supportive of the value of
higher education and of college completion. (Foxx, though, <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/11/17/virginia-foxx-weighs-gops-higher-education-priorities" target="_blank">recently told</a> <em>Inside Higher Ed</em> that she didn’t know what the Obama administration’s completion agenda was.)<br />
<blockquote>
"Congress really does hold the cards in terms of how the issues get framed."<br />
<em>-- Jamie Merisotis, president and CEO of the Lumina Foundation</em><br />
</blockquote>
<strong>Common Ground on Alternatives to the Traditional College Pathway</strong><br />
The incoming Trump administration has floated the idea of an
infrastructure improvement program with a $1 trillion price tag.
According to Carnevale, 70 percent of the jobs created by such spending
would require only a high school diploma.<br />
<br />
Even so, some of that money would almost certainly be used for job
training at colleges, particularly two-year institutions. If the funding
actually happens -- a big if at this point -- it's impact on higher
education would dwarf the Obama administration’s $2 billion work force
program that was aimed at community colleges.<br />
<br />
A focus on high school training would also have a higher education
component. That’s because of growing interest in dual and concurrent
enrollment programs, which Republicans in particular tend to favor.<br />
<br />
More than 10 percent of high school students are taking college
courses, according to the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment
Partnerships. About one-third of dual enrollments are in career and
technical education courses, the alliance said, with particular growth
in rural schools and those where a majority of students are ethnic or
racial minorities.<br />
<br />
Likewise, apprenticeships are growing in popularity, with bipartisan
support. And supporters say apprenticeships should expand beyond
technical jobs.<br />
<blockquote>
"The election has opened up space to talk about high-quality alternatives to the four-year degree."<br />
<em>-- Mary Alice McCarthy, director of the Center on Education and Skills with the education policy program at New America</em><br />
</blockquote>
A career and vocational focus earlier in the education pipeline is a
form of “tracking,” which is more common in Europe. Tracking tends to
freak out Americans, particularly when it is seen to diminish
educational opportunity and if it is imposed on students, giving up on
them too early.<br />
<br />
Yet tracking, when done well, shares some common philosophies and goals with the <a href="http://www.aacc.nche.edu/Resources/aaccprograms/pathways/Pages/default.aspx" target="_blank">degree “pathways” approach</a>
Gates is leading. The foundation is spending $5.2 million to help 30
community colleges in 17 states “design and implement structured
academic and career pathways at scale, for all of their students.”<br />
<br />
Free community college programs in some ways also bring together high
schools and two-year colleges. Tennessee’s government, for example, <a href="https://www.tn.gov/education/section/instruction" target="_blank">says it is</a>
the “first state in the nation to have a fully funded K-14 public
education.” Talking about K-14 is major shift, and one that mirrors what
the Obama administration was trying to accomplish with its free
community college proposal.<br />
<br />
Other postsecondary alternatives that sit <a href="https://www.newamerica.org/education-policy/edcentral/-a-trump-administration-has-an-opportunity-to-address-gaps-in-our-postsecondary-education-system-and-expand-the-array-of-options-available-to-their-supporters--and-to-all-americans-/" target="_blank">somewhere between high school and traditional college</a>
are expanding and enjoy bipartisan support. Those approaches include
competency-based education programs, skills boot camps and employer
certifications.<br />
<br />
Some community colleges have begun offering competency-based
credentials, through the federal government's $2 billion work force
grant and in partnerships with Western Governors University. Several
two-year-college leaders said competency-based programs would expand in
the sector.<br />
Some of these emerging players offer “bite-size, high-value”
credentials, said Carnevale. “The labor market and costs are melting the
system.”<br />
<blockquote>
"We need to expand the pathways. … We’re going to have a bigger tent, with different providers."<br />
<em>-- Jason Tyszko, executive director of the Center for Education and Workforce at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation</em><br />
</blockquote>
Another rare spot of agreement between Republicans and Democrats is
that the accreditation process should be reformed, albeit in different
ways.<br />
<br />
The Obama administration and Senate Democrats have pushed accreditors
to scrutinize student outcomes, including completion rates and
employment outcomes.<br />
<br />
Republicans seem less likely than Democrats to prod accreditors to
set “bright lines” for graduation rates. And some conservatives say too
much of a push on completion rates can lead to unintended consequences,
including a weakening of academic standards. Faculty unions and many
professors agree.<br />
<blockquote>
"We need educated people to fuel economic growth. … In a knowledge economy, a college education is the way to bridge the gap."<br />
<em>-- Josh Wyner, executive director of the Aspen Institute’s College Excellence Program</em><br />
</blockquote>
Yet members of both parties have sought to create alternative
accreditation pathways for noncollege providers, including Senator
Michael Bennet, a Colorado Democrat, and Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida
Republican.<br />
<br />
Lumina also has been active in exploring new forms of credentialing,
with an eye toward completion and job training. If those efforts take
hold, they could feature different approaches to quality control.<br />
<br />
<strong>Deregulation, For-Profit Colleges and Open-Access Admissions</strong><br />
<br />
It’s been a rough five years for the for-profit sector, which has
seen aggressive scrutiny, high-profile collapses, sliding enrollments
and hemorrhaging revenue.<br />
<br />
While experts disagree about the role of federal regulation in the
sector’s decline, the U.S. Department of Education has been tougher with
the industry in recent years, and contributed to the demise of
Corinthian Colleges and ITT Technical Institutes, among others.<br />
<br />
The decline of for-profits has slowed the country's overall
postsecondary attainment rates. That’s not a bad thing, according to the
industry’s critics, who say for-profit-issued credentials too often
lack value in the job market.<br />
<br />
Congressional Republicans plan to roll back federal regulations aimed
at for-profits, including gainful employment. The Trump administration
likely would back that move.<br />
<br />
Some community colleges are worried that a major recovery by
for-profits would increase competition and cut into their enrollments.
“There is a palpable sense of fear” on community college campuses about
for-profits rising again, said Josh Wyner, executive director of the
Aspen Institute’s College Excellence Program.<br />
<br />
Yet for-profits have sustained potentially lasting damage. Many
players in the industry also face structural challenges, including a
price point that is a tougher sell and a stigma around the term
“for-profit.”<br />
<br />
Gunderson said the shift in Washington is an “opportunity for us to reintroduce ourselves.”<br />
But he said for-profits are unlikely to again seek to enroll large
numbers of students who are unprepared for college and face low odds of
completing.<br />
<br />
“This sector is not going back to where it was in 2010 when it
focused on open access,” said Gunderson. “We cannot ever endure the
experience we have had over the last eight years.”<br />
<br />
Direct link to article: <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/12/08/experts-talk-about-college-completion-push-and-what-comes-next" target="_blank">https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/12/08/experts-talk-about-college-completion-push-and-what-comes-next </a><br />
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FAPSChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15825450853996851810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2280142862501892733.post-75128393987905332482016-12-07T16:22:00.002-05:002016-12-07T16:22:34.888-05:00University Herald: For-Profit Colleges Sees Bigger Revenue Under President Elect Donald Trump<span class="art-date">Dec 06, 2016 10:22 AM EST</span>
<span class="art-byline"> </span><br />
<span class="art-byline">By <a href="http://www.universityherald.com/reporters/jane-reed" rel="author" title="Jane Reed">Jane Reed</a>, UniversityHerald Reporter</span><br />
<br />
For-profit colleges are seeing a brighter future with the upcoming
Donald Trump administration. Under the Obama administration, the
business life, when it comes to these colleges, were almost going to
collapse.<br />
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However, these for-profit colleges now are celebrating Donald Trump's
win from the recent 2016 Presidential Election. These schools know that
Trump understands business and this may be an advantage for their
industry.<br />
<br />
But what are for-profit colleges exactly? These are higher education
institutions that are operated by private and profit-seeking companies
or businesses. However, these colleges did not receive the support they
needed during the last few decades because of negative criticisms. The
colleges argued that there is efficiency in the profit model but they
are being targeted for their sales techniques, high costs or fees and
poor student outcomes.<br />
<br />
One example of a for-profit college is Trump University. But
regardless of this particular defeat in Donald Trump's portfolio, his
transition team, cites <a href="http://www.columbian.com/news/2016/dec/04/for-profit-colleges-expect-fortunes-to-improve-under-trump/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Columbian</span></a>, still welcomed these colleges with open arms.<br />
<br />
According to reports, for-profit colleges are going to undergo a
rebranding campaign to ensure its success. Although the president-elect
himself has not yet revealed his educational plan for the country,
supporters of these institutions are comfortable in knowing that Trump
will champion the private sector.<br />
<br />
A key advantage that for-profit colleges are looking at features new
borrower defense rules that will help cover student loans if the school
fails. And if embraced, these colleges can bring in new jobs, as well.
While Steve Gunderson, the president of the Career Education Colleges
and Universities ( the lobbying group), expressed that he is looking
forward to see a change in the system, Trump's transition team has not
officially commented on this matter just yet.<br />
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On record, President-elect Donald Trump has not spoken in length
about the future of for-profit colleges. However, it is already clear
that he is currently rolling up his sleeves after enlisting Betsy DeVos
as his pick for education secretary.<br />
<br />
Direct link to article:<a href="http://www.universityherald.com/articles/53551/20161206/for-profit-colleges-wealth-income-president-elect-donald-trump.htm" target="_blank"> http://www.universityherald.com/articles/53551/20161206/for-profit-colleges-wealth-income-president-elect-donald-trump.htm </a><br />
FAPSChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15825450853996851810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2280142862501892733.post-28636557511972166242016-12-02T12:41:00.005-05:002016-12-02T12:41:59.859-05:00CECU Press Release: Shortage of Skills: Medical and Clinical Assistants <div class="blog-date">
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12/2/2016 </span></div>
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December 2, 2016 - Washington, DC - This
month the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 7.4 million Americans
are unemployed, while at the same time 5.5 million jobs remain unfilled
in America. This crisis exists because employers demand "job-ready"
employees and prospective employees are simply not able to bridge the
skills gap without appropriate career education and training. At the
same time, the government reported a labor-force participation rate of
62.8% - meaning that 37.2% of the labor force is not engaged in
meaningful work. For many, they have dropped out of the workforce
because they do not have the skills that are necessary to obtain
meaningful employment. </div>
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During
the winter months Americans get flu shots in an effort to avoid flu
season, with over 45% of American getting vaccinated each year. Many of
these people were seen by clinical/medical assistants. Medical
assistants coordinate administrative tasks and perform basic medical
procedures and are essential to patient care in the offices of
physicians, podiatrists, chiropractors and other healthcare
practitioners.<br /><br />What if there were not enough trained medical
assistants to provide this important annual service to the American
public? In 2015, our nation’s private sector colleges produced 74% of
all graduates in the medical/clinical assistance program. According to
the Department of Labor, employment of medical assistants is projected
to grow over 138,900 jobs from 2014 to 2024, a 23 percent increase that
is much faster than the average of 7% growth for all occupations. The
private sector alone is set to produce over 100,000 of these jobs over
the next decade in this bustling industry.<br /><br />“Medical assistants
are one of the most versatile and key professionals in the healthcare
industry. Whether it’s making the patient feel comfortable or overseeing
vital information for physicians, developing careers in medical and
clinical assistance is vital for an efficient and comprehensive
healthcare system,” said Steve Gunderson, president and CEO of Career
Education Colleges and Universities. “As healthcare in America continues
to advance, these careers will be integral to our nation’s economy. Our
sector’s programs will continue to prepare and train medical students
to hit the ground running.”<br /><br />With an aging and increasing
population, a rise in the amount of treatments available, and advances
in medical technology, there will be significant rise in the importance
and necessity for healthcare professionals.<br /><br />The medical assistant
employment is heavily driven by demand from physicians’ offices, one of
the fastest growing sectors in the industry and is forecasted to
increase 27 percent through 2022. Outpatient care centers, where medical
assistant employment is likely to increase by 57 percent, health
practitioners’ offices, and medical laboratories are also venues that
require work performed by medical assistants.<br /><br />Career Education Colleges and Universities (CECU) had recently announced its <a href="http://www.career.org/campaign.html">Campaign to Create 5 Million Career Professionals</a>,
which will provide individuals with the career education and skills in
healthcare and connect academic programs of postsecondary institutions
to private sector health institutions.<br /><br /><strong>About Shortage of Skills</strong><br />Each
month CECU will profile America’s “Shortage of Skills” (SOS) in one key
industry. We will examine industries that are critical to America’s
economic advancement and explain how a well-educated and well-trained
workforce can address these issues.<br /><br /><strong>About Career Education Colleges and Universities (CECU)</strong><br />Career
Education Colleges and Universities (CECU) is a membership organization
of accredited institutions of higher education that provide
postsecondary education with a career focus. CECU’s work supports
thousands of campuses that education millions of students. </div>
</div>
FAPSChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15825450853996851810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2280142862501892733.post-29445834484951069942016-11-30T11:38:00.003-05:002016-11-30T11:38:32.382-05:00AP: The Big Story: For-profit colleges expect fortunes to improve under Trump By <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/journalist/collin-binkley">COLLIN BINKLEY</a><span class="updated" title="2016-11-29T16:15:11-05:00"> Nov. 29, 2016 4:15 PM EST</span><br />
<br />
<span class="updated" title="2016-11-29T16:15:11-05:00"></span>BOSTON (AP) — After nearing collapse under the Obama administration,
the for-profit college industry is celebrating Donald Trump's election
as a chance for a rebound.<br />
As stock prices for some of the nation's largest college chains have
surged, industry lobbyists say they have received a warm welcome from
Trump's transition team and already have launched a campaign to rebrand
the embattled industry as a key to the new president's plan for economic
growth.<br />
<br />
While Trump has yet to detail his education plan, some in the
for-profit sector see the president-elect as an ally who has championed
the private sector and promised to roll back many of President Barack
Obama's regulations.<br />
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Industry lobbyists hope those include federal "gainful employment"
rules, which can cut funding to academic programs whose graduates
struggle to pay off student debt, and new borrower defense rules that
can force financially unstable schools to put up large sums of money to
cover student loans if the school fails.<br />
<br />
"Unfortunately, the focus in the last eight years has been fighting
for survival from an ideological administration that was opposed to our
very existence, and hopefully that is a fight we will no longer have to
wage," said Steve Gunderson, president of the industry lobbying group
Career Education Colleges and Universities and a former Republican
congressman.<br />
<br />
Gunderson said that early conversations with Trump's transition team
showed promise for a smoother relationship with the White House.<br />
<br />
"They absolutely see a place for postsecondary career education which
is not exclusively constructed around just four-year liberal-arts
programs," Gunderson said.<br />
<br />
Trump's transition team did not respond to requests for comment.<br />
<br />
The for-profit college industry has suffered steep enrollment losses since 2010. Many schools <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/d1d6da3038eb4e188d898a610c8e9aee/amid-scrutiny-profit-colleges-see-enrollment-slide">blame</a>
Obama, whose administration has cracked down on schools accused of
fraud and added new regulations that officials say were meant to protect
students from abuse.<br />
<br />
In September, the ITT Technical Institute chain shut down after the
federal government mostly barred it from enrolling new students as a
sanction for academic troubles. A month later, the Apollo Education
Group, owner of the University of Phoenix, told investors that it might
not survive the policies of another Democratic president.<br />
<br />
Trump, who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, spoke
little about for-profit colleges during his campaign. His pick for
education secretary, Betsy DeVos, is known for promoting charter schools
and school vouchers but has less of a track record when it comes to
higher education. DeVos did not respond to a request for comment.<br />
<br />
Still, critics expect that Trump will loosen the reins on for-profit
colleges, and some see parallels between those schools and the
Republican's now-defunct Trump University. This month, Trump agreed to
pay $25 million to settle three fraud lawsuits filed against his Trump
University real-estate seminars, although he didn't admit fault.<br />
<br />
Ben Miller, senior director for postsecondary education at the
liberal think tank Center for American Progress, said it's revealing
that the industry is celebrating someone accused of misconduct "that
resembles the worst practices of that industry."<br />
<br />
But Miller and other critics doubt the sector will see a major rebound because its image has already been tarnished.<br />
<br />
To repair its reputation, Gunderson's group is rebranding the
industry as a key to Trump's plan for economic growth. This month, the
schools Gunderson represents promised to train 5 million skilled workers
over the next decade, echoing Trump's promise to create 25 million jobs
in that span.<br />
"Our sector needs to reintroduce ourselves to the policymakers," Gunderson said.<br />
<br />
Four-year for-profit colleges enrolled an estimated 1.1 million
undergraduates in spring 2016, according to the National Student
Clearinghouse Research Center, a nonprofit research group.<br />
The DeVry Education Group said in a statement that it will work with
the administration and "offer suggestions and reforms." Shares in the
parent company of DeVry University jumped 30 percent in the weeks after
Trump's election, to their highest value in more than a year.<br />
Other for-profit colleges declined to comment.<br />
<br />
Students who attend for-profit colleges are typically older and
poorer than their peers at four-year universities, and more often
they're minorities, according to federal data. Industry backers say
that's because for-profit schools offer accelerated programs with
flexible schedules for working adults. Opponents say it's because they
lure low-income students with aggressive tactics.<br />
<br />
A study released by the Education Department this month found that
graduates of public colleges earned an average of $9,000 a year more
than their counterparts at for-profit colleges. Gunderson's group
countered with another study projecting that the sector could produce
8.5 million professionals over the next decade.<br />
<br />
Those offering recent support to the industry include former House
Speaker Newt Gingrich, a close adviser to Trump who is making a case to
be the president-elect's strategic planner. At a recent event in Dallas
for Gunderson's group, Gingrich urged the next administration to embrace
for-profit schools in its education plan.<br />
<br />
"They have an opportunity to try to create a movement, to create 8.5
million new jobs, which gets precisely at what Donald Trump has been
campaigning on," Gingrich said in an interview.<br />
Gingrich, who is personal friends with Gunderson, added that he
believes some of Obama's major regulations targeting the industry will
be scaled back.<br />
<br />
"I expect them to be dramatically modified," Gingrich said. "They
were impossible to administer and they simply set up rules designed to
force schools into bankruptcy."<br />
<br />
Direct link to article:<a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/e2ee39e8a0d045e4921c025ade9017dd/profit-colleges-expect-fortunes-improve-under-trump" target="_blank"> http://bigstory.ap.org/article/e2ee39e8a0d045e4921c025ade9017dd/profit-colleges-expect-fortunes-improve-under-trump </a><br />
<span class="updated" title="2016-11-29T16:15:11-05:00"> </span>
FAPSChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15825450853996851810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2280142862501892733.post-51413425558468545562016-11-23T11:53:00.002-05:002016-11-30T11:35:45.585-05:00Manhattan Institute Commentary: Public Colleges Aren't a Better Bet Than For-Profits <div class="content-area">
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<i><span class="type">commentary</span></i>
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<a class="author" href="http://www.manhattan-institute.org/expert/preston-cooper"><span class="name">Preston Cooper</span></a></div>
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<span class="source"><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/prestoncooper2/2016/11/21/public-colleges-arent-a-better-bet-than-for-profits/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Forbes</a></span>
<span class="date">November 21, 2016</span></div>
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<span class="main-topic">Education</span><span class="subtopic">Higher Ed</span><br />
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The Department of Education has <a href="http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/education-department-releases-new-graduate-earnings-data-career-college-programs" target="_blank">released new data</a> on
the earnings of graduates from career college programs as part of the
implementation of its “gainful employment” (GE) rule. The rule, which
went into effect last year, requires colleges that receive federal
funding to ensure their graduates have high earnings relative to the
student debt they have accumulated. The rule applies to all for-profit
colleges and to certificate programs at colleges in any sector, public
or private.<br />
<br />
In its <a href="http://www2.ed.gov/documents/press-releases/ge-fact-sheet-online.pdf" target="_blank">press release</a>,
the Department of Education touts the $9,000 gap between the average
earnings of graduates of public and for-profit career college programs
with the assertion “public colleges pay off.” This data point will
certainly be deployed to justify the Department’s uneven regulatory
strategy, wherein for-profit colleges receive <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/prestoncooper2/2016/08/17/business-model-trumps-quality-in-education-department-regulations/" target="_self">much tougher scrutiny</a> than their peers in the private nonprofit and public sectors. But the earnings gap only tells part of the story.<br />
<br />
The following graph, which focuses only on undergraduate certificate
programs for simplicity’s sake, shows wide variation in graduate
earnings within both the public and for-profit sectors.<br />
<br />
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<figure class="m_article-picture m_article-picture__ noalign"><img alt="" class="media-element file-default" height="226" src="https://www.manhattan-institute.org/sites/default/files/ge1.jpg" style="float: none;" width="320" /></figure>
The earnings gap doesn’t tell the whole story.<br />
<br />
There are plenty of public schools which are worse than the average
for-profit, and many for-profits which outperform the average public
institution. <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.forbes.com%2Fsites%2Fprestoncooper2%2F2016%2F11%2F21%2Fpublic-colleges-arent-a-better-bet-than-for-profits%2F&text=Painting%20either%20for-profit%20or%20public%20colleges%20with%20a%20broad%20brush%20is%20inappropriate." target="_blank">Painting either sector with a broad brush is inappropriate.</a><br />
<br />
More importantly, the earnings data only refer to <i>graduates</i>.
(When I contacted the Department of Education, a spokesman told me that
they were barred from releasing data on the earnings of dropouts.)
Defenders of the Department’s regulatory strategy can only make a case
that public colleges “pay off” for those who manage to graduate. For
public colleges, graduates are a minority.<br />
<br />
According to the <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/bps/" target="_blank">Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study</a>,
only 45% of certificate-seeking students at public colleges had
attained their credential three years later. However, this attainment
rate was nearly 70% for comparable programs at for-profit colleges. That
is a 25-point gap in favor of for-profits.<br />
<br />
<br />
<figure class="m_article-picture m_article-picture__ noalign"><img alt="" class="media-element file-default" height="251" src="https://www.manhattan-institute.org/sites/default/files/ge2.jpg" style="float: none;" width="400" /></figure>
In short, these data points suggest that there is a tradeoff between
public and for-profit colleges, rather than one or the other being
objectively better. At a public college, you’ll collect higher earnings <i>if</i> you manage to graduate. At a for-profit, you’ll probably graduate, but you’ll also end up with lower earnings.<br />
<br />
<br />
Specifically, it appears that for-profit schools have a lower bar for
graduation than public schools, thus allowing more students with lower
earnings potential across the finish line. Since the GE data only refer
to completers, two certificate programs with identical instructional
quality and student demographics could have different average earnings
if one program has a higher standard for graduation. The higher-standard
program will allow fewer students with low earnings potential across
the finish line, which will push up the average earnings of the students
who do manage to complete.<br />
<br />
In addition, for-profit schools have a stronger incentive to admit
more students who might have low earnings potential to begin with. Both
public and for-profit schools are heavily <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/prestoncooper2/2016/06/02/government-subsidies-drive-for-profit-colleges-failures/" target="_self">subsidized</a>.
But in the case of for-profit schools, most of the subsidies generally
follow the student through Pell Grants and subsidized student loans.
Public schools receive those funds as well, but they also get a
substantial share of revenue from direct government appropriations. To
increase revenues, therefore, for-profits must go out and recruit more
students. Public schools, meanwhile, will have more luck lobbying their
state legislature for additional direct funds.<br />
<br />
This is why for-profit colleges spend heavily on recruitment and
advertising—more students mean more subsidies. It also explains why,
according to the GE data release, the average for-profit undergraduate
certificate program graduated 131 students, compared to just 30 students
for comparable programs at public schools.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.forbes.com%2Fsites%2Fprestoncooper2%2F2016%2F11%2F21%2Fpublic-colleges-arent-a-better-bet-than-for-profits%2F&text=The%20%22gainful%20employment%22%20rule%20creates%20an%20odd%20set%20of%20incentives." target="_blank">An odd set of incentives is at play here.</a> Federal
student aid encourages for-profit colleges to enroll as many students
as possible. However, the gainful employment rule will also encourage
them to graduate as few of those students as possible, letting only the
highest potential earners over the finish line. (Remember, low graduate
earnings put a school at risk of losing federal funding, per the gainful
employment rule.) A college may want to <i>stop</i> a mediocre student from earning a certificate so his likely low earnings will not count against it in the GE data.<br />
<br />
Regulators could blunt these perverse incentives by looking at
graduate earnings in tandem with a school’s graduation rate. That way,
colleges would have a harder time concealing their poor performance by
relegating likely low earners to the pool of non-completers. But the
Department of Education <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2014/10/31/2014-25594/program-integrity-gainful-employment" target="_blank">explicitly rejected</a> any
regulatory approach based on completions. Many public colleges, which
the Department seeks to present as better alternatives to their
for-profit counterparts, would fail any reasonable aid eligibility test
based on graduation rate.<br />
<br />
For-profit colleges must do better, especially given that they are
the beneficiaries of billions in taxpayer money. But the idea that
public colleges are superior is questionable to say the least. The
outgoing Obama administration will doubtless point to the gainful
employment data as a mandate to push more students into public colleges’
certificate programs, or even make the schools <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/prestoncooper2/2016/10/28/free-community-college-still-a-bad-idea/" target="_self">tuition-free</a>.
But we should really be concerned about the quality of the career
college sector as a whole—public and for-profit schools alike.<br />
<br />
<b><i>This piece originally appeared on <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/prestoncooper2/2016/11/21/public-colleges-arent-a-better-bet-than-for-profits/" target="_blank">Forbes</a></i></b><br />
<br />
<b><i>Direct link to article:<a href="http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/public-colleges-arent-better-bet-profits-9544.html" target="_blank"> http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/public-colleges-arent-better-bet-profits-9544.html </a></i></b><br />
<i>______________________</i><br />
<i>Preston Cooper<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null"> is a fellow at the Ma</a>nhattan Institute's Economics21. Follow him on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/prestoncooper93">here</a>.</i>FAPSChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15825450853996851810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2280142862501892733.post-59539395925106168202016-11-18T13:25:00.000-05:002016-11-18T13:25:30.155-05:00CECU Press Release: Career Education Colleges and Universities Commits to Producing 5 Million Skilled Professionals
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November 18, 2016 - Dallas - Career Education Colleges and Universities (CECU) announced this morning the <a href="http://www.career.org/campaign.html">Campaign to Create 5 Million Career Professionals</a>
in the decade ahead. Using research that connects the academic programs
of postsecondary institutions in our sector to related occupations, and
calculating projections using state-specific data on occupational
growth demands and replacement needs, the sector has outlined its role
in America’s economic and social future. </div>
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“The
importance of this research is that, for the first time, we are
connecting academic and occupational data from the government with local
projections to provide policymakers and employers a clear outline of
job skill demand in their community and state,” said Steve Gunderson,
president of the association. “We have combined this data nationally in
ways that emphasize the incredibly important role this sector provides
in meeting our nation’s skill demands.”<br /><br />Independent research
conducted by Dr. Wallace Pond and Ian N. Creager developed the protocols
leading to this important set of data. The analysis, based upon a
sophisticated, program-level, 50-state “cross-walk” of the Department of
Education’s IPEDS education data and Bureau of Labor Statistics labor
projections, suggests career colleges could produce nearly 8.5 million
professionals in critical fields over the next decade.<br /><br />The research shows that over the next decade, private sector schools will produce:<br />• 90% of professional divers,<br />• 83% of cosmetologists,<br />• 78% of vocational nursing and nursing assistants,<br />• 64% of dental assistants and<br />• 55% of heating, ventilation and A/C (HVAC) engineering technicians. <br /><br />In
all, the research shows that in over 200 occupations, private sector
schools produce between 25-100% of the academic credentials in a given
occupation area.<br /><br />The data also shows that in certain states, the
work of these schools in meeting their state’s economic needs is
essential. For example, these schools could produce 1.3 million
professionals in California; just over 1 million in Arizona; 589,000 in
Florida; 496,000 in Texas and over 400,000 in New York State.<br /><br />Congressman
Pete Sessions (R-TX-32), honorary co-chair of the kick-off event,
commended the study as key to building America’s economic future. “This
research shows that we must take an active role in creating more
opportunities in the marketplace and encouraging Americans to reenter
the job market. I am pleased that Texas is leading the way on this
initiative and stressing the importance of the role that higher
education institutions play in creating an effective skilled workforce.”<br /><br />Congressman
Henry Cuellar (D-TX-28), fellow honorary co-chair, recognized the
campaign’s pledge to a skilled workforce. “In today’s 21st century
economy, it is important that postsecondary education includes a career
focus and prepares our students to be a successful part of the
workforce. I applaud the campaign’s commitment of nearly half a million
credentials in Texas to meet the demand for skills-based jobs.” <br /><br />At
a time of educational focus on outcomes, the study lifts up the
important achievements of this sector of higher education. Wallace Pond,
the director of the study said, “In all higher education career
programs, the private sector institutions represent 11% of all students,
but 14% of all graduates. It is this sector’s focus on retention and
completion rates that shows such positive results.”<br /><br />Dalphna
Curtis, a career institution CEO in Dallas and leader with Women Voters
Alliance and Black Vote Advisors, said, “Nearly one in four Texas
students in our sector identify as black or African-American. Another
42% identify as Hispanic. Our communities of color need full access to
all sectors of postsecondary education to meet labor force growth and
replacement demands. This is not a sector conversation. This must become
a national conversation. If we have any hope of rebuilding America’s
middle class, this sector must play a role.” <br /><br />Joining in the
official announcement, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich called upon
the new administration and the Congress to use the campaign and
supporting study as an opportunity to work together in creating higher
education policy. “It’s time to stop the ideological crusade against
private sector schools and work together to give all citizens an
opportunity for skills, jobs and wages,” said Gingrich. “This study
makes clear America cannot succeed without the role these career schools
play in giving all citizens the skills needed for real work with real
pay.”</div>
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Direct link to press release:<a href="http://www.career.org/news/career-education-colleges-and-universities-commits-to-producing-5-million-skilled-professionals" target="_blank"> http://www.career.org/news/career-education-colleges-and-universities-commits-to-producing-5-million-skilled-professionals</a></div>
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FAPSChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15825450853996851810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2280142862501892733.post-5653959579851639652016-11-18T10:52:00.002-05:002016-11-18T10:52:39.534-05:00CECU Press Release: CECU On Gainful Employment Data Release
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November 17, 2016 - Washington, DC - The
following statement can be attributed to Steve Gunderson, president and
CEO of Career Education Colleges and Universities:</div>
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“The
U.S. Department of Education has fulfilled what was our greatest
concern around the gainful employment regulation – the use of faulty
data that lacks context.<br /><br />“It is absolutely absurd to compare
totally different fields of study and suggest that programs
traditionally taught in public institutions have higher incomes than
programs taught in proprietary colleges. This reflects the continuing
ideological bias of this Department against our sector and is yet
another example of why Americans are tired of out-of-touch bureaucrats
in Washington.<br /><br />“One of the fundamental lessons we have learned
from reviewing gainful employment data is that where a person lives can
have a significant impact on their earnings – you can have the exact
same program in a high wage urban area in California and a low-wage
rural area in the Midwest and have two totally different outcomes
related to earnings.<br /><br />“Without seeing the Departments underlying
datasets it is impossible to fully answer any of these questions. But
geography, age, race and gender are all factors here.” </div>
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Direct link to article:<a href="http://www.career.org/news/cecu-on-gainful-employment-data-release" target="_blank"> http://www.career.org/news/cecu-on-gainful-employment-data-release </a></div>
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FAPSChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15825450853996851810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2280142862501892733.post-77563149523156608672016-11-17T10:27:00.005-05:002016-11-17T10:27:38.670-05:00Inside Higher Ed: Gingrich Backs For-Profit Group's Campaign<br />
November 17, 2016<br />
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By <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/users/paul-fain" target="_blank">Paul Fain</a><br />
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Newt Gingrich and U.S. Representative Pete Sessions, a Texas Republican,
are slated to join Career Education Colleges and Universities at an
event Friday. The group, which is the primary trade organization for the
for-profit sector, is announcing a new campaign to close the skills gap
with five million trained professionals. Gingrich, the former Speaker
of the U.S. House of Representatives and a prominent adviser to
President-elect Donald Trump, in August appeared in a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqJOmmEFbFs" target="_blank">web video</a> with Steve Gunderson, the for-profit group's president and CEO.<br />
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Direct link to article:<a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2016/11/17/gingrich-backs-profit-groups-campaign" target="_blank"> https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2016/11/17/gingrich-backs-profit-groups-campaign </a>FAPSChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15825450853996851810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2280142862501892733.post-549317137178926112016-10-28T10:58:00.002-04:002016-10-28T10:58:41.894-04:00CECU Press Release: CECU Statement on Release of Defense to Repayment Regulation
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28 October 2016 - Washington, DC - The below statement can be attributed to Steve Gunderson, president and CEO of CECU:</div>
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“The
regulation published today by the U.S. Department of Education will
cause millions of students to lose access to higher education and leave
American taxpayers on the hook for billions of dollars.<br /><br />“The
Department can continue to mislead taxpayers and Congress about the
impact of this regulation, but the truth is this regulation puts the
future of career education in America at risk. This regulation will
limit career education opportunities for new traditional students and
ultimately deny millions of Americans a pathway to improving their life
and growing the American economy.<br /><br />“This complex and burdensome
regulation will crush career education with financial requirements not
imposed on others in higher education – including institutions that have
lower graduation rates and higher default rates.<br /><br />“All of this
is being enacted in the final days of the Administration – a last ditch
ideological effort that will have a lasting impact on students,
educators, and taxpayers. For eight years the Department could have
worked cooperatively with the Congress and higher education stakeholders
to advance meaningful reauthorization of Higher Education Act. Instead
they opted to promulgate regulation after regulation limiting higher
education access, opportunity, and outcomes for new traditional
students.<br /><br />“We are in the process of evaluating the regulation
and determining its impact on students and institutions – once that is
complete we will determine our appropriate action.”</div>
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Direct link to press release: <a href="http://www.career.org/news/cecu-statement-on-release-of-defense-to-repayment-regulation" target="_blank">http://www.career.org/news/cecu-statement-on-release-of-defense-to-repayment-regulation </a></div>
FAPSChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15825450853996851810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2280142862501892733.post-75187335140335250252016-10-07T16:19:00.003-04:002016-10-07T16:19:36.752-04:00CECU: Shortage of Skilled Veterinary Technicians in America
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October 7, 2016, Washington, DC – This month
the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 7.9 million Americans are
unemployed, while at the same time 5.9 million jobs remain unfilled in
America. This crisis exists because employers demand "job-ready"
employees and prospective employees are simply not able to bridge the
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One
occupation that will be particularly affected by this skills gap is
veterinary technicians. Employment of veterinary technologists and
technicians is projected to grow 19 percent from 2014 to 2024, <a href="http://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/veterinary-technologists-and-technicians.htm">according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics</a>
– significantly faster than the projected 7% average job growth for all
occupations. Nearly 18,000 new veterinary technicians will be needed to
fill these jobs.<br /><br />Officials at the United States Department of
Agriculture have expressed concern over the looming shortage: “Forty
percent of our top-level leadership can retire now,” Jack Shere,
Veterinary Services Deputy Administrator of USDA’s Animal and Plant
Health Inspection Service (APHIS) <a href="https://www.agra-net.com/agra/food-chemical-news/agriculture/animal-health-and-welfare/usdas-veterinarian-shortage-will-cause-major-headaches-for-industry-shere-says-526195.htm">recently said</a>
at the USDA Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Animal Health (SACAH)
meeting in Washington, D.C. If this crisis is not addressed soon, it
could have huge impacts on the American public.<br /><br />Adequately
training veterinary students will be crucial to ensuring new technicians
are prepared to enter the field as baby boomers retire, otherwise a
crippling shortage of skilled workers will exist. But across the
country, veterinary technician programs are closing their doors.
According to a <a href="https://www.avma.org/News/JAVMANews/Pages/160901e.aspx">recent article</a>
from the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, more
than 30 private sector veterinary programs are in the process of
shutting down. The article notes that the issues these schools are
facing stem largely from a “challenging federal regulatory environment,”
including the gainful employment regulation. <br /><br />“Students in our
sector’s Veterinary Technology programs learn the fundamentals such as
diagnostic imaging, laboratory procedures, and veterinary office
practices – in a practical hands-on manner. This classwork is paired
with externship rotations that include various animal care environments
to give students real-world experience,” said Steve Gunderson, president
and CEO of CECU.<br /><br />“The importance of veterinary programs cannot
be overstated, nor can the threat of burdensome regulations on the
future existence of these programs,” added Gunderson. “It is clear the
demand exists for these graduates, but out-of-touch regulations threaten
to eliminate programs training students for in demand careers.”<br /><br /><strong>About Shortage of Skills </strong><br />Each
month CECU will profile America's "Shortage of Skills" (SoS) in one key
industry. We will examine industries that are critical to America's
economic advancement and explain how a well-educated and well-trained
workforce can address these issues.<br /><br />Previous months have looked at:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.career.org/news/shortage-of-skills-in-the-cyber-security-sector-make-americans-vulnerable">Cyber Security</a><br /><a href="http://www.career.org/news/addressing-the-shortage-of-skilled-accountants-in-america">Accountants And Bookkeepers</a><br /><a href="http://www.career.org/news/shortage-of-skills-construction-skilled-trades">Construction And Skilled Trades</a><br /><a href="http://www.career.org/news/shortage-of-skills-heating-ventilation-air-conditioning-and-refrigeration">Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning And Refrigeration</a><br /><a href="http://www.career.org/news/shortage-of-skills-in-the-beauty-and-wellness-industry">Beauty And Wellness</a><br /><a href="http://www.career.org/news/shortage-of-skills-the-culinary-sector">Culinary</a><br /><a href="http://www.career.org/news/shortage-of-skillsinformation-technology-cyber-security">Information Technology</a><br /><a href="http://www.career.org/news/shortage-of-skills-automotive-repair">Automotive Repair</a><br /><a href="http://www.career.org/news/shortage-of-skills-health-care-professionals-and-nurses">Health Care</a><br /><a href="http://www.career.org/news/shortage-of-skills-part-one-transportation-distribution-and-logistics">Transportation, Distribution, And Logistics</a><br /><br /><strong>About Career Education Colleges and Universities (CECU) </strong><br />Career
Education Colleges and Universities (CECU) is a membership organization
of accredited institutions of higher education that provide
postsecondary education with a career focus. CECU's work supports
thousands of campuses that educate millions of students.</div>
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Direct link to article:<a href="http://www.career.org/news/shortage-of-skilled-veterinary-technicians-in-america" target="_blank"> http://www.career.org/news/shortage-of-skilled-veterinary-technicians-in-america </a></div>
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