School Accountability & Student Protections – Our Reports

The Student Veteran Experience with Transcript Withholding

Colleges frequently withhold their students’ academic transcripts for balances due, even when the debt is disputed. Indeed, transcript withholding is one of the most common debt collection tactics used by colleges across all sectors. Many [...]

Veterans with Student Loans They Never Authorized or Wanted

Following publication of our report, the U.S. Department of Education reached out to request a meeting to discuss our findings. Soon thereafter, the Department sent a warning letter to all colleges and universities nationwide, available [...]

Our Analysis: Project’s Findings on the Effect of Closing the 90/10 Loophole Have Serious Shortcomings

In February 2021, the Veterans Education Project (the Project) released a report on the impact of closing the 90/10 loophole. The report’s authors were Jason Delisle, a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), [...]

Issue Brief: Investigative Analysis: Advertising Trends for Selected Postsecondary Institutions during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Click here to download a PDF copy of the report. Click here to download the Appendix including screen-captured ads as part of the analysis. Highlights Our investigation examined how a [...]

COVID-19 and Postsecondary Enrollment: Lessons from the Last Recession

Click here to download a PDF of the report. On June 8, 2020, the National Bureau of Economic Research announced that the U.S. economy had peaked in February 2020 and officially [...]

Election 2020: Policy Memo for Candidates: Supporting Military-Connected Students in Higher Education

Election 2020: Policy Memo for Candidates: Supporting Military-Connected Students in Higher Education Read the report and visit our webpage here: https://vetsedsuccess.org/election-2020-policy-memo-for-candidates-supporting-military-connected-students-in-higher-education/

2020 Toolkit for State Policymakers

Visit the website page here: https://vetsedsuccess.org/2020-toolkit-state-policymakers/

Are Student Veterans Going to be Denied Access to CARES Act Emergency Relief Funds?

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act authorized more than $6 billion in emergency cash grants “to students” enrolled in campus-based postsecondary education, to be distributed by their colleges. On April 9, 2020, [...]

Coronavirus-Related Legislation and Its Relevance to GI Bill and Other VA-Supported Students

Click here to download a PDF copy of the report. This paper is intended to serve as a primer on recent Public Laws and legislation intended to mitigate the economic impact of the coronavirus emergency [...]

Analysis of Higher Education Relief Funds for Coronavirus: How Will They Be Allocated Across Institutional Sectors?

Click here to download a PDF copy of the factsheet. Higher education emergency relief funds authorized by § 18004 of P.L. 116-136, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES), are limited to institutions [...]

VA and States Should Act on Early Warning Signs When Risks to GI Bill Beneficiaries and Taxpayers Emerge at Participating Schools

This report is one in a series of three reports by Veterans Education Success on State Approving Agency (SAA) and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) oversight of GI Bill participating schools. A second report examines [...]

Congress Should Consider Authorizing VA to Require Letters of Credit from Schools in order to Mitigate Risks to Veterans and Taxpayers

The U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) lacks the authority to require letters of credit (LOC) from schools eligible to enroll GI Bill beneficiaries. In contrast, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) can require schools [...]

VA Still Not Enforcing 1974 Ban on Schools that Engage in Deceptive Advertising and Recruiting

Summary: This Issue Brief examines the history of schools that rely on misleading advertising and recruiting to enroll veterans and eligible family members and subsequent ban by Congress in 1974 based on contemporaneous findings of [...]

Proposed Short-Term Pell Safeguards Should Be Further Strengthened

Highlights Recently reintroduced legislation known as the JOBS Act would make federal Pell Grants available for very short, 8-week programs intended to help individuals “afford the skills training and credentials that are in high-demand in [...]

Overemphasis on Payment Accuracy Impedes More Effective SAA Oversight of Schools Participating in the GI Bill

Executive Summary State Approving Agencies (SAA), state-level entities that operate under contract with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), were established to serve as gatekeepers for GI Bill participating schools. Their ability to provide effective, [...]

Analysis of the Impact of Closing the 90/10 Loophole

We used a December 2016 Department of Education study to estimate the number of schools that would be affected by including GI Bill and Defense Department tuition and fee payments in the 90 cap on [...]

Proposed Education Department Regulatory Changes Should Be Reevaluated Based on GI Bill Oversight Lessons

ED’s rulemaking should be revaluated based on the lessons learned from GI Bill oversight and the impact on veterans. In each of the areas ED is proposing changes, veterans have been disproportionally harmed in a [...]

Could Education Corporation of America’s Sudden Closure Have Been Avoided?

Earlier this month, another for-profit college chain closed abruptly, leaving more than 20,000 students and 4,000 GI Bill beneficiaries wondering why this happened and how this will affect their future educational endeavors. On December 5, [...]

Is Trident University a Good Choice for Military-Connected Students?

Trident, a University that focuses heavily on recruiting military-connected students, has a mixed record. Its outcomes are better than Ashford’s, another for-profit school that is exclusively online, and the proportion of Trident students with federal [...]

Ashford’s Fight to Maintain GI Bill Access Raises Questions about the Enforcement and the Adequacy of Statutory Requirements

Ashford’s potential loss of its eligibility to enroll veterans using the GI Bill and its more than year-long effort to maintain that eligibility raises questions about the enforcement of statutory approval requirements by State Approving [...]

Department of Education Data Shows Increased Targeting of Veterans and Servicemembers, Highlighting Urgency of Closing 90/10 Loophole

For several years, the media has reported on the declining enrollment in the for-profit sector. However, our analysis of federal revenue flowing to the for-profit sector from the Departments of Veterans Affairs (VA), and Defense [...]