The Power of the Personal

September 30, 2014
  • Industry News

Daphanie Johnson is one of two former students a U.S. Senate committee cited in a July staff report that made a case against for-profit colleges for taking advantage of military veterans. Yet Johnson first heard about the Senate investigation when journalists began calling her, after the report was released.

"I didn't know that there was some kind of probe going on," said Johnson, a U.S. Army veteran who served in Iraq. "I never talked to the Senate."

Democratic staff members for the Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee wrote the report. Sen. Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat and prominent critic of the for-profit sector, chairs the committee.

Senate aides confirmed that they relied on a news release from the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) as the sole source about Johnson's experience at American InterContinental University. The committee did not contact her.

Read more at Inside Higher Ed: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/09/29/former-student-veteran-earns-grant-and-lands-senate-report