Letter to VA and Louisiana State Approving Agency about US K9 Unlimited
We alerted VA and state authorities about a K9 training school that allegedly mistreated and threatened student veterans, purposefully structured programs to get as much money out of veterans' GI Bill benefits as it could, [...]
Our Letter to the VA Advisory Committee on Education
December 7, 2020 U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Education Services 810 Vermont Avenue NW Washington DC 20420 Via electronic submission to EDUSTAENG.VBAVACO@va.gov Re: Advisory Committee on Education Dear Members of the Advisory Committee, [...]
Great News for Veterans Cheated By Their School! “Borrower Defense” Applicants Get a Win in Court
November 23, 2020 For information: Call (202) 838-5050 Great news for veterans who were cheated or misled by their school! The U.S. Education Department has voluntarily agreed to stop denying "borrower defense" applications from students [...]
Military Times: Vet groups are blasting Trump’s education secretary. Here’s why.
Veterans’ education benefits are being undermined by the federal government, according to officials with two prominent advocacy organizations focused on student veterans.
WaPo: Veterans groups ask VA secretary to keep GI benefits out of the hands of predatory colleges
Three dozen advocacy groups are calling on Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie to intensify monitoring of college programs that enroll veterans after an audit found lax oversight could result in $2.3 billion in tuition benefits [...]
Our New York Times op-ed: Betsy DeVos vs. Student Veterans
Our President Carrie Wofford authored an op-ed in the New York Times: "As the political makeup of the 116th Congress begins to congeal, the question of what, if anything, this divided government can do together [...]
The Predatory Underworld of Companies that Target Veterans for a Buck
The recent law enforcement crackdown on for-profit colleges is well documented. These schools mislead students by promising a fast track to a brighter future and then loaded students up with mountains of debt for worthless [...]
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Inspector General: VA’s Oversight of State Approving Agency Program Monitoring for Post-9/11 GI Bill Students
Prior VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) reports have identified significant financial risks in how the education benefits under the Post-9/11 GI Bill are administered. The OIG conducted this audit to determine if VA and [...]
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 [...]
Politico Morning Education: Veterans Education Success issued a new analysis today
Meanwhile, the group Veterans Education Success issued a new analysis today based on government data that found student veterans demonstrate stronger rates of persistence and completion of higher education goals compared with their non-veteran peers.
Creating Student-Centric Support Systems for Military-Connected Students
Prior to the Post 9/11 GI Bill, little focus was put on promising practices to support military and veteran students in their pursuit of higher education. With the passage of this comprehensive benefit in 2009, [...]
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 [...]
U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences: Military Service and Educational Attainment of High School Sophomores After 9/11: Experiences of 2002 High School Sophomores as of 2012
This Statistics in Brief examines 2002 high school sophomores’ entrance into military service through 2012, up to 8 years after most graduated from high school in 2004. The report provides estimates regarding the timing of [...]
Press Release: Veterans and Military Service Organizations Urge Education Department Not to Rollback Student Protections and Quality Controls in Program Integrity Rules
September 14, 2018 For Immediate Release: Contact: Carrie Wofford, (202) 838-5050 Veterans and Military Service Organizations Urge Education Department Not to Rollback Student Protections and Quality Controls in Program Integrity Rules Veterans also Travel [...]
Press Release: Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ Rescission of Gainful Employment Fails Statutory Obligation to Stop Waste, Fraud, and Abuse and to Protect Taxpayer Dollars – and Knowingly Puts Veterans and Servicemembers at Risk
September 13, 2018 For Immediate Release: Contact: Carrie Wofford, (202) 838-5050 Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ Rescission of Gainful Employment Fails Statutory Obligation to Stop Waste, Fraud, and Abuse and to Protect Taxpayer Dollars – and [...]
Our Public Comment Opposing the Rescission of Gainful Employment
Public Comment by VES against the Education Department’s proposal to completely rescind the requirement that career college programs meet minimum Gainful Employment metrics
Press Release: Our Full-Page Ad for the Military Lending Act
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, SEPTEMBER 6, 2018 CONTACT: Dom Slowey, 781-710-0014 dslowey@sloweymcmanus.com Mike Saunders: 202-838-5050 mikesaunders@veteranseducationsuccess.org Veterans & Military Service Organizations Urge CFPB & DOD Not To Rollback Servicemembers' Protections Under the Military Lending Act WASHINGTON [...]
Press Release: Veterans Organizations Oppose DeVos’ Proposed Borrower Defense Rule
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 31, 2018 CONTACT: Walter Ochinko, (202) 838-5050 VES Research Director and Borrower Defense negotiator representing military and veteran students on both the 2016 and 2018 negotiated rulemaking panels Twenty-Seven Veteran [...]
27 veteran and military service organizations oppose the Education Department’s rollback of protections for taxpayers and students in Borrower Defense rule
A letter by veteran organizations in opposition of the Education Department's rollback of veteran protections. Individual veterans also filed their own public comments about their experiences.
New York Times: DeVos Ends Obama-Era Safeguards Aimed at Abuses by For-Profit Colleges
WASHINGTON — Education Secretary Betsy DeVos formally moved Friday to scrap a regulation that would have forced for-profit colleges to prove that the students they enroll are able to attain decent-paying jobs, the most drastic [...]
New York Times: Education Department Unwinds Unit Investigating Fraud at For-Profits
WASHINGTON — Members of a special team at the Education Department that had been investigating widespread abuses by for-profit colleges have been marginalized, reassigned or instructed to focus on other matters, according to current and [...]
New York Times: Exploiting Veterans for Profit
Editorial Exploiting Veterans for Profit By The Editorial Board Nov. 24, 2017 Despite efforts by Congress, the Obama administration and state attorneys general to stop the predatory practices of for-profit colleges, veterans and service members [...]
T&P: The Emotional Challenges of Student Veterans on Campus
This Veterans Day, Americans will honor the heroism and sacrifice of the nearly 22 million men and women who have served in the U.S. military. Among them will be student veterans. Since 2009, nearly one million veterans [...]
Task & Purpose: To Protect Veterans, Keep The VA Ban On Employees Working With For-Profit Colleges
On Sept. 14, the Department of Veterans Affairs quietly announced that it will waive a common-sense ethics law for all of its employees. For over 50 years, the VA has prohibited employees from receiving payments or having [...]
Forbes: How The White House Is Harming College Borrowers
For more than a generation, the GOP trope with a nod and a wink was "I'm here from Washington and I'm here to help." Yet sometimes, government policies do help Americans -- especially those with crippling college [...]
Inside Higher Ed: Advocates Prod Stanford for Better Treatment of Student Veterans
Stanford University is among the world's wealthiest educational institutions, with an endowment north of $22 billion. Which made it all the more disturbing to Adam Behrendt that the university appeared to be shortchanging undergraduate veterans like [...]
HuffPost Education: Students Testify: For-Profit Colleges Stole Our Futures
After six years of engagement on the issue of America’s predatory for-profit colleges, I feel I’ve seen it all — every kind of account of students deceived and abused by cynical college operators who have [...]
PBS NewsHour: Are for-profit universities taking advantage of veterans?
Since 2009, the G.I. Bill has paid up to $21,000 a year of college tuition for those who served in Iraq or Afghanistan. Much of that money, though, goes to for-profit schools, which award degrees [...]
Tampa Bay Times: Helping Students Left Behind by For-Profit Colleges
Through no fault of their own, tens of thousands of students were left high and dry — and broke — when the for-profit Corinthian Colleges closed and abandoned them. So U.S. Education Department officials are [...]
New York Times: When Colleges Use Veterans as Pawns
Editorial When Colleges Use Veterans as Pawns By The Editorial Board Feb. 10, 2015 For-profit colleges that burden students with crippling debt — often while giving them useless credentials in return — are luring veterans [...]
USA Today Editorial: Veterans Are Not Dollar Signs in Uniforms
The 1944 GI bill helped catapult a generation of veterans into the middle class and beyond, financing the education of three future Supreme Court justices, three presidents and thousands of doctors and scientists while democratizing many [...]
New York Times: Preying on Veterans
The for-profit education industry has been pushing back hard against new Education Department rules that will make it easier to rein in predatory schools that strip students of financial aid, saddle them with crushing debt [...]