VES REPORTS
Our published reports regarding college accountability and students’ rights.
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?
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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, [...]
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 – [...]
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 [...]
Storm the Hill | PROSPER Act | After Action Report
In June, representatives from America's largest Veterans Service Organizations stormed Capitol Hill to encourage lawmakers to oppose a proposed piece of legislation called the "PROSPER Act," a terrible bill which would have decimated military families [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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, [...]
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 [...]
VES ADVOCACY LETTERS
Veterans Education Success works with our military and veteran allies to send policy advice to government officials.
VES to VA: It’s Time to Do Your Job
After multiple for-profit colleges have been caught defrauding veterans, the VA has still failed to act. VES wrote a letter to the VA reminding the agency of its duty to protect veterans.
28 Veterans and Military Leaders ask US Federal Trade Commission to release the names of the schools that participated in fake military recruiting websites
Related letter to US Congressional Armed Services Committees requesting their work to ensure future military recruitment is not disrupted by fraudulent college lead generator companies
Service Member Protection from Credit Bureaus
Consumer and Veteran groups asked Congress to protect service members from credit bureaus infringing on their rights.
27 veteran and military service organizations oppose the US Education Department’s rollback of protections for taxpayers and students in Borrower Defense to Repayment rules, and include quotes from veterans with pending Borrower Defense applications
Individual veterans also filed their own public comments about their experiences.
38 veterans and military service organizations call on the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and US Defense Department to stop the rollback of servicemembers’ rights under the Military Lending Act
Resubmitted Sept. 5 with additional signatures FULL PAGE NEWSPAPER AD nationwide Petition Same letter borrowed submitted by a smaller, additional coalition [...]
MORE NEWS & INFO
U.S. Department of Justice prosecutes 4 VA employees for receiving bribes from 3 for-profit colleges in exchange for steering disabled veterans and $2M in Voc Rehab funds to the schools
WASHINGTON – A former U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) official pled guilty today to demanding and receiving bribes from three for-profit schools in exchange for enrolling disabled military veterans in those schools and facilitating [...]
Courtroom hearing on Colorado Attorney General’s Lawsuit against Stevens-Henager College America for defrauding students
This is an action brought by the state of Colorado pursuant to Colorado Consumer Protection Act.
Federal Trade Commission shuts down predatory fake military websites (Army.com, Air-Force.com, NavyEnlist.com, and ArmyEnlist.com)
The operators of copycat websites army.com and navyenlist.com have agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that they targeted people seeking to join the armed forces and tricked them by falsely claiming to be affiliated [...]
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 [...]
American Military University settles lawsuit with Massachusetts Attorney General, paying $270,000 for high pressure enrollment tactics and failure to disclose graduates’ job prospects
BOSTON — Attorney General Maura Healey today announced a settlement with an online for-profit school over allegations that the school violated Massachusetts law by failing to make mandated disclosures to prospective students about job placement [...]
DeVry students in Texas sue DeVry based on FTC’s findings of deceptions about job placement
This lawsuit seeks damages from Defendants for violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices-Consumer Protection Act (“DTPA”), fraud, negligent misrepresentations, and restitution for unjust enrichment against Defendants ADTALEM GLOBAL EDUCATION, INC., and DEVRY UNIVERSITY INC. Defendants [...]
California Attorney General Secures $67 Million in Debt Relief for Defrauded Former Corinthian Students in California
SAN FRANCISCO – California Attorney General Xavier Becerra today announced a settlement with Balboa Student Loan Trust (Balboa) that will provide $67 million in critical debt forgiveness and other much-needed relief for the 34,971 Californians who [...]
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.