Friday, June 11, 2021

College Accrediting Agencies Do Not Always Accredit

The Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges (ACCSC) is one of those agencies. It seemed to favor the Center for Excellence in Higher Education (CEHE), which owned 16 college campus, none of which I had heard of. Some names - CollegeAmerica Phoenix, Stevens-Henager College, Idaho Falls.

ACCSC, in 12 years, raised concerns more than 30 times that colleges affiliated with CEHE were potentially failing to meet standards for quality, honesty, and other attributes crucial to students and taxpayers alike. Yet, CEHE never fixed the vast majority of these problems. An example - last year, a Colorado judge ruled that colleges operated by CEHE had knowingly engaged in deceptive practices, misleading students about graduates’ earnings, job opportunities, and ability to repay loans provided by the colleges.

Finally, in April 2021, more than a dozen years after concerns were first raised about campuses in the chain, ACCSC pulled the plug on CEHE by withdrawing accreditation—the seal of approval that makes the colleges it oversees eligible for federal student aid funds. Yet the colleges under the corporation already had received a collective $1.8 billion in federal grants and loans since 2008.

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