The organization at the center of one of the largest fraud scandals in the history of for-profit colleges is planning a comeback.
The Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools was stripped of its powers in December 2016 amid the collapse of two for-profit university chains^ where tens of thousands of students were encouraged to take on hundreds of millions in debt based on false promises^ including jobs after graduation.
The ordeal left thousands of students stranded^ and many have since flooded the Education Department with applications for relief from student loan debt. The Obama administration approved about 32^000 claims totaling $449 million.
Now^ that same accrediting council is asking to be reinstated by the Trump administration as a federal gatekeeper for hundreds of degree-granting programs and billions of dollars in federal funds.
Read more at The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/01/us/politics/for-profit-colleges-accreditation.html