Original Research from Veterans Education Success
OUR RESEARCH REPORTS
Veterans Education Success performs non-partisan, academic research and analysis of higher education policy issues that matter to military-connected students.
Quality of Education & Student Outcomes
Annual and Cumulative Student Loan Debt Among Veterans Using and Not Using GI Bill Benefits
This Fact Sheet examines student loan borrowing in academic year 2015-16, comparing undergraduate veterans who received any GI Bill educational benefits (beneficiaries) to those who did not (nonbeneficiaries). In addition to their borrowing during that [...]
Weak Return on Investment at Trade Schools that Enroll GI Bill Beneficiaries
Highlights We found that student outcome data at Title IV- participating trade schools that enroll GI Bill beneficiaries in certificate programs showed a disappointing return-on-investment but robust retention and graduation rates (see table 1). For [...]
Should Colleges Spend the GI Bill on Veterans’ Education or Late Night TV Ads? And Which Colleges Offer the Best Instructional Bang for the GI Bill Buck?
Every year, around 700,000 Post-9/11 GI Bill students enroll in an institution of postsecondary education,1 a benefit earned through sacrifice and service to our nation. The GI Bill represents America’s thanks for veterans’ military [...]
Veteran Student Loan Debt 7 Years After Implementation of the Post-9/11 GI Bill
In May 2018, we reported on trends in veteran student loan debt from just before the 2009 implementation of the more generous Post-9/11 GI Bill (2007-08) to 3 years after the new benefit became available [...]
Career Education Colleges and Universities: Outcomes at Selected Member Schools
After a brief history of CECU, this report provides “key takeaways” from our analysis of both descriptive and outcome data for the 26 CECU-member schools. The report concludes with a discussion of some of the [...]
Postsecondary Non-Completion Among Veterans: Contributing Factors and Implications
This paper uses Beginning Postsecondary Students (BPS), a longitudinal survey conducted by the Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) to examine factors contributing to and the impact of non-completion for “first-time” student [...]
Student Outcomes at Colleges Approved by the Accreditor ACICS
Veterans Education Success analyzed the most recent U.S. Department of Education (Department) data to determine student outcomes at the approximately 100 schools still accredited by the Accrediting Council of Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS). ACICS [...]
Veteran Student Loan Debt Before and After the Post-9/11 GI Bill
A major goal of the Post-9/11 GI Bill, which modernized veterans’ educational benefits, was to provide veterans with the opportunity of a debt-free, postsecondary education—or, at a minimum, to mitigate their student loan debt. The [...]
Despite a 2016 Statute, the GI Bill Still Pays for Degrees That Do Not Lead to a Job
VES’s 2015 report, The GI Bill Pays for Degrees that Do Not Lead to a Job, identified 8-degree programs offered by 15 different schools, at both brick and mortar campuses and online, that failed to [...]
Enrollment Trends and Student Outcomes at Ashford University
This Fact Sheet examines the enrollment trends and student outcomes at Ashford University, including (1) how much of the school's revenue comes from the GI Bill; (2) what are its veteran enrollment trends; (3) how [...]
The GI Bill Pays for Degrees That Do Not Lead To a Job
Unfortunately, some programs approved for GI Bill benefits leave graduates de facto ineligible to obtain a job in their field of study because the school (1) lacks the appropriate accreditation or (2) fails to meet [...]
School Accountability & Student Protections
VA and States Should Act on Early Warning Signs When Risks to GI Bill Beneficiaries and Taxpayers Emerge at Participating Schools
The precipitous closure of numerous school chains since 2012 was presaged by clear indicators, which we refer to as early warning signs, that enrollment in these schools posed a risk to both GI Bill beneficiaries [...]
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, [...]
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 [...]
The ITT Collapse: Lessons Learned and Dealing with Future Challenges
The seeds of ITT Tech’s collapse were decades in the making. Deregulation of the for-profit college industry certainly played a rise in enabling ITT’s increasing dependence on federal dollars, but corporate short-term thinking, greed, consumer [...]
The Corinthian Sale: Lessons Learned & Dealing With Future Challenges
The February 2015 sale of about half of Corinthian campuses to Zenith Education Group—a brand-new subsidiary of the student loan guaranty agency and debt collector ECMC—provides an opportunity to reflect on lessons learned and prepare [...]
Why For-Profit Institutions are targeting Veterans Education Benefits
The G.I. Bill is America’s chief “thanks” to those who have given the most to their country; it is a ticket to the American Dream for most veterans – a chance to earn a college [...]
GI Bill & Military Education Benefits
The 85-15 Rule and Related GI Bill Safeguards
The impact of the 85-15 rule—a requirement that education programs enroll at least 15% non-veterans to ensure schools are not bilking VA, as occurred after WWII—has evolved over time. This Issue Brief presents the Congressional [...]
GI Bill Payments and Enrollment, Fiscal Years 2009 to 2018
Total GI Bill payments and enrollment grew significantly after the implementation of the Post-9/11 GI Bill educational benefits in August 2009. Eighty three percent of the $105 billion in expenditures on educational benefits from Fiscal [...]
VA and SAA Approval and Disapproval Authority Should Be Clarified
Executive Summary State Approving Agencies (SAAs) and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) are expected to work in tandem to approve, disapprove, and oversee the educational benefits provided under 38 United States Code (U.S.C.) [...]
Why Aren’t More Undergraduate Student Veterans Enrolling at Selective Colleges? Veteran Undergraduate vs Graduate Student Demographics
Selective colleges with high graduation rates enroll far fewer veterans pursuing undergraduate certificate, associate’s, or bachelor’s degrees than those seeking post-baccalaureate degrees such as master’s, PhD’s, or certifications. This Issue Brief explores demographic and enrollment [...]
Large For-Profit Schools Remain Dependent on Recruiting GI Bill Students Despite Overall Enrollment Declines
For several years, the media has reported on the decline in for- profit schools’ student enrollment. Missing in these articles are data on a key subset of students who are specifically targeted by for-profits—GI Bill [...]
For-Profit Schools’ Post-9/11 GI Bill Revenue and Enrollment Declined from 2014 to 2016
In this brief, we report separately on total GI Bill enrollment and enrollment for only the Post-9/11 benefit. Post-9/11 revenue includes tuition payments for qualifying GI Bill students through the Yellow Ribbon program under which [...]
Schools Receiving the Most Post-9/11 GI Bill Tuition and Fee Payments Since 2009
This issue brief focuses on cumulative Post-9/11 payments to schools, not enrollment. Eight of the top 10 recipients of Post-9/11 tuition and fee payments from fiscal years (FY) 2009 through 2017 were for-profit schools. These 8 [...]
Repayment Status for First-Time Student Veterans 12 Years After Enrolling
Drawing on the National Center for Education Statistics' First Look report on Student Loan Debt, Repayment and Default, this Issue Brief highlights key findings on veteran student loan debt.
OUR FACT SHEETS
Short fact sheets on key issues.
GI Bill Payments and Enrollment, Fiscal Years 2009 to 2018
Total GI Bill payments and enrollment grew significantly after the implementation of the Post-9/11 GI Bill educational benefits in August 2009. Eighty three percent of the $105 billion in expenditures on educational benefits from Fiscal Year 2009 to 2018 were for veterans and eligible family members using the Post-11 GI [...]
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 for-profit schools' federal revenue. We then identified those same schools in the GI Bill Comparison [...]
Advice for Accreditors
Recruiting practices by institutions of higher learning is an area fraught with deceptive and misleading practices, due to a number of competing incentives. While veteran recruiting practices differ from civilian recruiting in some respects – recruitment at military bases, discounts offered for veterans, focus on the military friendly culture of [...]
Proposed Borrower Defense Rule: Worse than 2016 for Military-Connected Students
This chart makes clear the differences between the 2016 rule and the proposed 2018 rule at the US Education Department.
The Incentive Compensation Ban and Its Importance to Veterans
The incentive compensation ban is a provision of Title IV of the Higher Education Act. It prohibits schools from using incentive compensation to pay employees working in recruitment and financial aid. Schools, in other words, cannot pay employees based on how many students are recruited or receive federal student aid [...]
The Borrower Defense Rule and Its Importance to Veterans
The Borrower Defense Rule gives the Education Department the authority to forgive federal student loans for students that prove their debt was incurred because they were defrauded by a school. It has been in place for over two decades. The Rule was clarified in late 20161 in the wake of the [...]
The Gainful Employment Rule and Its Importance to U.S. Veterans
The Gainful Employment Rule, finalized in 2014 and upheld by federal courts multiple times, implements the requirement in the Higher Education Act that career education programs (whether for-profit, public, or non-profit) must “prepare students for gainful employment in a recognized occupation." The rule applies to specific programs within a school, but [...]
Sampling of Student Complaints about Ashford University
"[Ashford] lied about the costs. When I asked to withdraw I was told I would have no debt. I asked a number of times. I explained to my advisor that I was struggling and they continuously harassed me about getting back into the university and I felt pressured to go. [...]
OUR LEGAL REPORTS
Veterans Education Success prepares legal analysis and trends in veteran student complaints.
Army.com List of Partner Schools Exposed
The Federal Trade Commission shut down a number of copycat military websites in September of 2018. This report examines one of those websites, Army.com, and the list of partner schools it displayed while in operation.
Veteran and Servicemember Complaints about Misconduct and Illegal Practices at Trident University
Forty-six military-connected students, however, have submitted complaints to Veterans Education Success (VES) about various issues they allegedly experienced with Trident. In one way or another, those complaints indicate that Trident does not necessarily live up to its claims about its university. This document describes and organizes those complaints by the [...]
Piercing the Veil of Covert For-Profit Colleges
Recent efforts by certain predatory for-profit colleges to convert to nonprofit status1 raises the question of whether the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) can continue to exercise jurisdiction over those entities’ misleading and deceptive recruiting practices. The Federal Trade Commission Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 41-58, grants the FTC enumerated powers [...]
Law Enforcement Actions Against Predatory Colleges
This document summarizes government actions against predatory colleges, providing links to the government actions and briefly explaining the fraud alleged.
Veteran and Servicemember Complaints about Misconduct and Illegal Practices at Ashford University
In 2017, we conducted a review of the complaints we have received from veterans and servicemembers who have attended Ashford. We also interviewed a small number of those individuals. This memorandum details the complaints that we received about Ashford and organizes them into nine broad categories, such as program costs [...]
Harvard Law School Report: Veteran and Servicemember Complaints about Misconduct and Illegal Practices at Kaplan Schools
In 2017, Veterans Education Success contracted with Harvard Law School's Project on Predatory Lending to analyze complaints against Kaplan brought to Veterans Education Success by student veterans. For-profit schools have garnered significant attention for their illegal practices and their unfair, deceptive, and misleading conduct. In particular, there is serious concern [...]
Veterans with Pending Borrower Defense Applications at the Education Department
"I have a so-called degree from ITT Tech and found that most employers laugh at it. During my time there I had accrued a fair amount of debt from this fraudulent school and am having issues staying above water with the interest payments they require. The school representatives were not [...]
Yale Law School Report: Student Veteran Complaints Alleging Illegal Practices at University of Phoenix
In 2016 and 2017, Veterans Education Success contracted with Yale Law School's Veterans Legal Clinic to analyze complaints against the University of Phoenix (UOP) brought to Veterans Education Success by student veterans. UOP is a very large for-profit university with large online enrollment and high GI Bill enrollment. The Department [...]
Yale Law School Report: Student Veteran Complaints Alleging Illegal Practices at Colorado Technical University
In 2016 and 2017, Veterans Education Success contracted with Yale Law School's Veterans Legal Clinic to analyze complaints about Colorado Technical University (CTU) brought to Veterans Education Success by student veterans. CTU is a very large for-profit university with large online enrollment and high GI Bill enrollment. The Department of [...]
Misleading Websites and “Lead Generators”: A Case Study: Victory Media’s “Military Friendly Schools”
Too often, veterans and servicemembers are misled and deceived by websites and “lead generators” that steer the veterans and servicemembers to colleges that pay the websites, as part of a grand scheme by the colleges to get access to the GI Bill and military student programs. (The colleges that [...]
Trends in Veteran and Servicemember Student Complaints about DeVry University
300 different servicemembers, veterans, and their dependents brought complaints to Veterans Education Success about issues they had with DeVry University. This document contains the narratives of 193 complainants and organizes the complaints by the types of harm they raise and provides context and background information. For each type of harm, [...]
Trends in Veteran and Servicemember Student Complaints about ITT Technical Institute
What follows is a public version of a “trends analysis” document Veterans Education Success prepared detailing the types of harm observed by us in our work providing free legal services to service members, veterans, and their dependents who brought to our attention their complaints about ITT Technical Institute. The military [...]
Yale Law School: VA’s Failure to Protect Veterans from Deceptive College Recruiting Practices
In 2015 and 2016, Veterans Education Success contracted with Yale Law School's Veterans Legal Clinic to analyze VA's failure to adhere to a federal statute. This analysis proceeds in two parts. First, it explains the VA’s statutory obligation to deny GI Bill funds for schools engaging in deceptive recruitment practices. [...]
ISSUES
Policy issues of Veterans Education Success
Veterans Education Success works to improve post-secondary quality and student outcomes to ensure military-connected students enjoy a solid education leading to a successful civilian career. You will find research reports and coalition letters related to college quality and student outcomes.
Veterans Education Success seeks to ensure students have adequate protections and rights and also believes bad actor colleges should be held accountable if they’ve trampled on students’ rights. You will find research reports and coalition letters related to student protections and college accountability.
Vterans Education Success works to protect the GI Bill and other federal education benefits.