Just as America’s veterans organization are coming together to demand better government protection against deceptive and abusive practices by for-profit colleges, Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) seems to want to move in the opposite direction, pushing an amendment that would require the Pentagon to allow any college approved for military tuition benefits to have unrestricted access to recruit on military bases. Veterans and military groups, as well as other Senators, are now working to stop this Manchin amendment.
Senator Manchin’s amendment might please, among others, a for-profit college headquartered in his home state, American Public University System (APUS), which runs the online schools American Military University and American Public University. APUS, whose student body has been more than 50 percent active duty military, has more reasonable tuition prices and is the subject of fewer student complaints than some of the worst for-profit schools, but it had a 23 percent student loan default rate in the most recent reported year, 2012 — a dramatic increase from previous years. APUS saw its student enrollment grow by some 400 percent in the five years leading up to 2012, in a period when for-profit and online education exploded, spurred by reckless deregulation under the Bush Administration.
But beyond concerns about APUS, the Manchin amendment, which was adopted by voice vote in the Senate Armed Services Committee, would allow even the most predatory colleges to recruit service members on bases without restrictions.
Read more at The Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/davidhalperin/veterans-groups-oppose-ma_b_10131328.html