OUR RESEARCH & REPORTS
Our published reports regarding college accountability and students’ rights.
Law Enforcement Actions Against Predatory Colleges
This document summarizes government actions against predatory colleges, providing links to the government actions. Law Enforcement Actions Against Predatory Colleges (updated December 2019) ACADEMY OF ART UNIVERSITY, SAN FRANCISCO City Attorney of San Francisco [...]
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, [...]
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. [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
OUR ADVOCACY LETTERS
Veterans Education Success works with our military and veteran allies to send policy advice to government officials.
42 Veterans and Military Organizations Request Senate Action on HR 4625, Protect the GI Bill Act
42 of the nation's leading veterans service organizations and military service organizations wrote the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee to request its speedy passage of HR 4625, Protect the GI Bill Act, which cleared the House [...]
21 Military & Veteran Organizations’ Letter to CFPB on Debt Collection
Veterans Education Success organized and led a letter from 21 national military and veteran service organizations to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau regarding its proposed changes to debt collection rules.
TICAS Updated Gainful Employment Rule Fact Sheet (August 2019)
The Institute for College Access and Success published an updated "What to Know About the Gainful Employment Rule,"which worked to improve quality, lower costs, and save taxpayer money. The Trump Administration rescinded the rule on [...]
Veterans and Military Service Organizations urge the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to maintain mandatory underwriting provisions of the rule regulating Payday, vehicle title and high-cost installment loans
Military and Veteran Service Organizations (MSO/VSOs) write to express opposition to recension of underwriting requirements of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) 2017 rule regulating Payday, Vehicle Title and Certain High-Cost Installment Loans.
We submitted a formal “Third Party Comment” regarding the accreditor ACICS to the Council for Higher Education Accreditation
We ask you to please review the following two letters regarding ACICS. The concerns of Veterans and Military Service Organizations regarding ACICS still stand:
37 Veterans and Military Service Organizations write Congress to share our priorities for Higher Education Act reauthorization
37 undersigned organizations representing the interests of more than 2 million military-connected current students in higher education, write to ensure that reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA) increases college access and improves college completion [...]
Our recommendations to Senators regarding the needs of students of color
Thank you for the opportunity to share our thoughts on the needs of student borrowers of color as you undertake Higher Education Act reauthorization. Veterans Education Success represents veterans, servicemembers, military families, and survivors. According [...]
36 Veteran and Military Organizations Ask VA for Better Oversight of GI Bill Colleges
A letter from 36 military and veteran organizations to the Secretary of VA, requesting a meeting and his attention to the Inspector General's finding that VA is wasting $2.3 billion in GI Bill to colleges [...]
Our Letter urging VA to follow the law on schools that defraud veterans
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.
Free Credit Monitoring for Servicemembers
VES and other veterans and military service organizations write to US Federal Trade Commission regarding free credit monitoring for servicemembers
Our Letter urging better disclosures on college performance under Gainful Employment rule
We at Veterans Education Success - a nonprofit that advocates on behalf of veterans, servicemembers, and their families - strenuously oppose the proposed changes to the Gainful Employment rule as they will undermine and weaken [...]
MORE NEWS & INFO
Law Enforcement Actions Against Predatory Colleges
This document summarizes government actions against predatory colleges, providing links to the government actions. Law Enforcement Actions Against Predatory Colleges (updated December 2019) ACADEMY OF ART UNIVERSITY, SAN FRANCISCO City Attorney of San Francisco [...]
New York Times: Protect Veterans from Fraud
On January 1, 2020, the New York Times ran a full-page editorial by the Editorial Board featuring Veterans Education Success' work: "Nevertheless, a 2018 report from Veterans Education Success, a nonprofit that provides legal help [...]
Letter from Congress to VA regarding VA’s obligation to protect veterans from deceptive colleges
December 20, 2019 Dear Secretary Wilkie: We write today in the wake of Federal Trade Commission (FTC) settlements with for-profit Career Education Corporation (CEC) and University of Phoenix (UOP) for unfair, deceptive, and abusive practices. [...]
Our Amicus Brief in the Montana Supreme Court re Public Service Loan Forgiveness
Veterans Education Success filed an amicus brief regarding the importance of Public Service Loan Forgiveness and opposing loan servicers’ active misrepresentations to students about Public Service Loan Forgiveness. The case is Reavis v. Pennsylvania Higher [...]
Federal Judge Orders Owner of Dog Training School to Forfeit Assets from Fraud Scheme against GI Bill Benefits
"A federal judge ordered 48-year-old Bradley Lane Croft, owner of Universal K-9, Inc., to forfeit over one million dollars in assets derived from his scheme to defraud the federal government with respect to the use [...]
Military Times: Veterans Group Applauds FTC for Gaining $50 Million Settlement Plus $141 Million in Canceled Student Debt in University of Phoenix Deceptive Ad Case
The settlement was applauded by some education advocacy groups, including Veterans Education Success, which works to help military veterans. Carrie Wofford, the group's president, thanked the FTC for its work. “The FTC’s findings should shock [...]
NBC News: University of Phoenix Settlement “Drop in the Bucket” for Student Debt, Advocates Say
"Carrie Wofford, president of Veterans Education Success, called the settlement a 'really important step forward' in protecting veterans. 'The broader context of this case is for-profit colleges are incentivized by federal laws to target veterans,' [...]
PBS NewsHour & Hechinger Report: For-Profit Colleges that Get GI Bill Money Need More Oversight, Veterans Say
The VA has received at least 37 complaints about Ashford from GI Bill beneficiaries. An advocacy group called Veterans Education Success (VES) has collected 113 more from veterans and service members, many of which echo [...]
NBC News: University of Phoenix to Cancel $141 Million in Student Debt
"The settlement was applauded by some education advocacy groups, including Veterans Education Success, which works to help military veterans. Carrie Wofford, the group's president, thanked the FTC for its work. “The FTC’s findings should shock [...]
Air Force Times: Veterans Group Applauds FTC for Gaining $50 Million Settlement Plus $141 Million in Canceled Student Debt in University of Phoenix Deceptive Ad Case
"The settlement was applauded by some education advocacy groups, including Veterans Education Success, which works to help military veterans. Carrie Wofford, the group's president, thanked the FTC for its work. “The FTC’s findings should shock [...]
Forbes: University Of Phoenix Pays $191 Million For Deceiving Students
Carrie Wofford, president of Veterans Education Success, applauded the announcement and spoke to the findings. “The FTC’s findings should shock every patriotic American. Enough is enough. It's time to stop the fleecing of America’s veterans [...]
Washington Post: FTC reaches $191 million settlement with University of Phoenix in deceptive-advertising probe
“Enough is enough. It’s time to stop the fleecing of America’s veterans and service members by predatory colleges,” said Carrie Wofford, president of Veterans Education Success, an advocacy group. “We thank the FTC for its [...]
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.