Jose Diaz-Buttler, a trained mechanic three years removed from the Navy, was seeking steady work in the Bay Area when the 2008 financial crisis hit. After initially contacting Heald College, a nearby for-profit school, to boost his job prospects, he found himself the target of calls every other day from Heald recruiters who promised job leads following graduation.
But those opportunities didn’t materialize after Mr. Diaz-Buttler enrolled and later graduated from its computer-science program with two associate degrees in 2011.
For-profit colleges’ aggressive recruitment of veterans like Mr. Diaz-Buttler, now 37 years old, is partly spurred on by a loophole that exempts GI Bill dollars from a federal funding cap. That loophole is at the heart of a dispute between the industry, which argues that these institutions are often the best option for veterans to obtain degrees, and some lawmakers, who counter that the funding rule leads schools to exploit vulnerable students.
Read the full story at the Wall Street Journal, “Fight Over For-Profit Colleges’ Funding Centers on Veterans” published August 17, 2019.