CFIF has been monitoring the developing scandal surrounding the Obama Administration’s assault against for-profit colleges, and we’re pleased to report the new Congress is already taking action to get to the bottom of it.<\/p>\n
First came allegations of insider trading<\/a> within Obama’s Department of Education.\u00a0 As detailed in a letter by Senators Tom Coburn (R – Oklahoma) and Richard Burr (R – North Carolina), Education Department officials “may have leaked the proposed regulations to parties supporting the Administration\u2019s position and investors who stand to benefit from the failure of the proprietary school sector.\u201d\u00a0 Then, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) withdrew, then revised and republished<\/a> a defective study originally released last summer involving undercover \u201cstudents\u201d sent to capture information on for-profit colleges.\u00a0 That GAO report had been cited as vital evidence for the Education Department and a Senate committee as they prepare to promulgate the Gainful Employment rule, and even the Washington Post<\/em> (whose parent company owns one of the largest for-profit schools) ran an article<\/a> exposing that defective report.\u00a0 The GAO\u2019s numerous revisions are all clearly slanted in one direction \u2013 the original report inaccurately cast career colleges in an unfavorable light, while the revisions indicate that the GAO\u2019s undercover students may have intended to entrap career college admissions personnel.\u00a0 By the GAO\u2019s own estimate, only 1 percent of reports are corrected, and the statistical likelihood that all<\/em> of its flaws skewed in the same direction (against for-profit colleges) was 1 in 65,536<\/a>.\u00a0 Tellingly, the stock value of for-profit colleges reportedly fell 14%, or $4.2 billion<\/a>, following the GAO report.<\/p>\n