Education Department Unwinds Unit Investigating Fraud at For-Profits

Low enough to escape the scrutiny it deserves. She sank to the slime pit the day she was approved and continues to wallow deeper to destroy the eduction system in this nation. I almost would rather see her totally close the entire department and let congress send money down the drain but at least it wouldn't get contaminated by this woman on the way down.

When rule of law isn't working so there is no redress of grievance the rich are eaten. Just sayin' it's a natural consequence of rotten behavior not corrected for too long.

Is the fraud unit that this article refers to the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Education (DOE)? The Inspector General for the DOE is responsible for investigating possible criminal activity and presenting cases to the U.S. Attorney's offices for possible prosecution. Such cases are often joint investigations with other law enforcement agencies including the FBI. If this is criminal activity that is in the hands of the grand jury it is outside the reach of DeVos. There is a long history of charlatan for-profit-schools preying on vulnerable individuals. Trump University comes to mind. I hope that the activities of the schools in this article are facing the scrutiny of our justice system.

I have to wonder if among the Trump heads of agencies/departments, if there is an internal race to the bottom in which each cabinet member attempts to first destroy their agency/department and become the most nefarious, unethical, and corrupt Administrator/Department head with the worst most corrupt staff. So far, I think Pruitt is winning, but DeVos is surely a close second.

Is there any department in this travesty of a government that doesn’t stink to high heaven? Who does Betsy DeVos think she is that she blithely (or, more probably, with considerable malice) sweeps away the protocols that protect the innocent and the vulnerable—and the hopeful—from rapacious diploma mills like Trump University and its ilk? And who does she think she is to staff her hit squads with the very people who helped create and then batten on those phony excuses for educational institutions? What I find really insulting is the insolence with which people like DeVos and Pruitt and Carson and the whole rank file (sic) operate. Do they think no one is watching? Do they think no one is listening? Or do the habits of autocracy and obscene wealth keep them totally insulated in their diamond-studded bubbles? Do you think that there is anywhere in the whole felonious population even one person who says This isn't right? I don't there is. Not anyone, in the whole cheap, shoddy ship of fools, captained by a cheap, shoddy fool of the first order.

The Trump cabinet will stop at nothing to destroy everything our country has built for the last 250 years. This assault on public education is unconscionable.

The Dumbing Down of America. Of course trump, DeVoss and the rest of the crooked anti- American Republicans want this. It makes it so much easier to control uneducated people. And that is just what this administration wants. Please, All Democrats, Independents and anyone that has any morals, ethics and patriotism for this country, need to vote against Trump and the GOP, in local and national elections. Sitting back and letting the “other” person do it is a sure vote for trump and the GOP. We must not let that happen. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN - DUMP TRUMP and all of his crooked sycophants in the GOP.

Cruella DeVos. The only thing missing is the Dalmatian Coat.

Drain the swamp...let's ignore for profit schools' fraud....like Trump university....how convenient.

Another trump adminstration policy of refusing to protect citizens to curry favor of the elite. Marginalize clean air and water by altering environmental policies in different departments. Remove safeguards for protection of ones hard earned dollars needed for school, healthcare and retirement. Increase personal debt by offering safeguards to corrupt auto and school lenders rather than the public. Victimize females and protect college administrations. Minimalize free public schooling so those with the greatest need are omitted. Remove meals so children go hungry at school. Those sick and uneducated masses are easier to control as are those without funds. How soon before debtor prisons are recreated to deal with the poor? It is sad that those in rural and poor areas most in need of quality world education voted this rable in by believing a snake oil saleman. Devos has skeletons in her closet for as part of the swamp she has to. Anyone? She is putting the US student base on a further decline from the rest of the world. We are not the smartest anymore.

That’s SO CONVENIENT for the Swamp Monster!!

The Trump wing of the GOP has traded the elephant mascot for the fox...not just because Fox News is its prime propaganda vehicle and more recently, its source of replacement personnel. But for the "foxes running hen houses" approach (poorly disguised as "the best people") to executive branch departments and agencies.

Yet another example of the current administration appointing "leaders" to Federal agencies who are dedicated to tearing down the very agencies they are supposed to run. It's one thing to not enforce of the law; it's another to enforce the opposite of the law for financial gain.

Important--and infuriating--reporting, which might be made even more compelling by pointing out that taxpayers have to cover unpaid federal student loans, without which most for-profit colleges would not exist.

With all the focus of the criminality around Russia, the criminality around Trump, DeVos, and their for profit university investments is getting swept under the rug. These "universities" are nothing but a way for rich people to exploit the most vulnerable people in our country to line their pockets with federal taxpayer dollars. That they are able to use their power to ensure their ability to continue to exploit the US taxpayer and bankrupt the already poor and marginalized is a criminal outrage and should not be allowed to continue.

This fits the pattern of Trump appointees who work towards the exact opposite ends of the agencies true purpose.

Want to see how Christianity-based, for-profit education works?Look at the US prior to the Revolution, or Guatemala today. Want to see how our public education system works when properly-supported? Observe nations that built upon what the US invented in South Korea or Scandinavia. Devos is all about dumbing down Americans to vote for the likes of Trump and work in her kleptocratic buddies' sweat shops.

Hear that noise in the background? That's the swamp overflowing. Someone must have turned the valve in the wrong direction.

Lock her up, or at least lock her out. Cruella DeVos, her family and her peers want to create an undereducated, underpaid underclass to work in their corporate "coal mines" (because it's God's will, after all) — and steal taxpayer dollars to train their army of human drones. Betsy DeVos doesn't want America's children educated, plain and simple.

Not only does she degrade public education at all levels; she helps protects profits of her own group and other private groups that exploit less fortunate students (and no doubt the student loan program). She must wistfully think of what she could have done with that $100 million settlement her group paid for abusive advertising previously. You can see her whistling to her pals - ‘Come on out; the coast is clear !’ The best way to rob a bank is to own one. The best way to abuse education is to become Secretary of Education.

They don't even attempt to conceal their corruption anymore. Our government is broken, our constitution is fatally flawed, our electorate is increasingly paranoid and misinformed. Please people, VOTE. Democracy requires participation and involvement.

This is bad and it will get worse. The only remedy is in the long run, after the Trump administration, but possibly after midterms. Though Republicans talk a good game about rooting out waste and corruption, they do not mean the waste of resources poured into "new innovations in for-profit education and private charter schools." There will be no Republican investigation of this particular swamp.

WE the 'common' people need to realize that the goal is to have an uneducated easily controlled populous that is is fighting each other for every scrap of economic gain that has been thrown to us from the tables of the rich. They are after all, the ruling class and are the only ones who rally know how to handle money.

Since Ms. DeVos has brought the foxes into the henhouse, we can hardly expect them to follow up on fraud in their own communities. Ms. DeVos seems hellbent on destroying the "public" in public education. I have been suspicious of these for-profit universities since I owned some Baron Funds in the 90s. They may have been good investments, but they didn't look like good educational institutions to me. I sold Baron Funds because I couldn't stomach the methods of the funds, let alone the institutions.

Let's put aside talk of policy, agendas, bibles and flags. Trump's great insight was that the US government could be run like a crime syndicate. Who would have thought that the end would be so shabby?

Oh wow now I see what the problem was all along with the America’s underperforming education system! Not enough fraud. Thanks for clearing that up, Betsy! Let us know if you see any bears, too :)

If there is a wrong move to make we can rest assured that this administration will make it. Considering that the president founded a fraudulent university himself it comes as absolutely no surprise.

I think that I need another cup of coffee - maybe a large cup. I cannot believe what I'm reading but with the Trump Administration and the swamp of political appointees and Cabinet heads approved by a Republican controlled U.S. Senate - it's not surprise: "Members of a special team at the Education Department that had been investigating widespread abuses by for-profit colleges have been marginalized, reassigned or instructed to focus on other matters, according to current and former employees. The unwinding of the team has effectively killed investigations into possibly fraudulent activities at several large for-profit colleges where top hires of Betsy DeVos, the education secretary, had previously worked." This is appalling. Where is the U.S. Justice Department?

I don't see much of a difference between someone that's been "defrauded" by a for-profit college and someone who has 150k in student loan debt for an art history degree from Harvard. They're both in way over their heads and both were led to believe that it was somehow worthwhile to acquire this debt. All colleges and universities that want to have students using student loans to pay their tuition should be required to justify the debt by showing that a graduate can reasonably repay the debt based off of their future career when they graduate. Of course, if my suggestion were executed the entire house of cards that is our university/college system would collapse...

Why this would surprise anyone is beyond me. This administration is rotten to the core, and each cabinet official appears to be lining their own pockets, protecting their own interests, and doing what they can to get theirs while they can. Just yuck.

To anyone running for office in 2018, we need to hear for me about the cost of higher education. It is stories like this that affect Americans in our day-to-day lives. I really hope that politicians run on issues like the cost of healthcare and education.

The failure to enforce--indeed, the decision not to enforce--the law against firms--especially those headed by associates--is simply the latest demonstration of crony capitalism and contempt for law. It is not possible to justify such a decision on any legal or moral grounds, only of financial ones favorable to campaign contributions. I am reluctant to impeach the president, but I am not reluctant to impeach cabinet members like DeVos and Pruitt. The House should enable the Senate to correct its mistake in confirming the President's corrupt and contemptible appointees. And Congress should re-learn an obvious lesson: the Constitution had good reason, which must be re-learned, for Senate confirmation of high-level Presidential nominees. The reason was absolutely not to let the President have his cabinet nominees rubber-stamped but at least to ensure a modicum of competence and conscientiousness in appointed civil servants.

Of all Trump’s cabinet picks, Betsy DeVos, in my opinion, is the worst. 1. The woman, taking “leadership” as Secretary of Education, has no, none, nada, formal education in education, let alone degree degree in education. 2. She has taken the role of decimating public education in favor of private, for profit, parochial teaching. 3. Private schools do not have to hire teachers who have a degree in education. 4. Private schools do not have to provide special education services to children with disabilities. 5. Private schools are taking our public taxpayer money for voucher payments for their schools. I grew up poor. But I got a public education, like, and alongside the rest of the kids who attended my public schools. Our city, by the way, had a reputation for outstanding public schools. That was my chance, my big chance, to get a worthy head start in life. All this voucher money, from taxpayers, has decimated public school funding. Now DeVos has even further infected that scene by not even having oversight into colleges that will take monetary advantage, but not fairly produce standards of education we would, in this United States, expect. Betsy DeVos is an evil woman. To serve profiteering is one thing, but to take away the chance for kids to succeed by getting a public education is cruel.

Despicable but not surprising. Expected behavior from just another one of trumps cabinet members.

More of the shameless, same for Trump's administration. I'm sure Trump wishes this dreadful woman was in place while he was happily ripping off working class American with Trump "University".

Forget about Secretary DeVos processing student loan forgiveness applications. Her student loan forgiveness process is at a virtual standstill as well. After all, DeVos would not want the government to bail out students who have been cheated by crooked for-profit schools. That would require taxpayers to pay more taxes for her abuses, and you know how the rich feel about taxes.

Egregious example: Trump University; proven fraud.

I have never seen legitimate schools advertise on television. The best advice I can offer people is when you see commercials advertising a school and making promises of job placement, don't even think about it. The daughter of a friend of mine was interested in learning medical billing. A local for-profit school charges $14,000 for the course and the local community college charges a little over $500. She chose the community college. She hasn't found a job in the field, but at least she isn't saddled with debt. Betsy DeVos and her cronies should be run out of town on a rail, along with the rest of the swamp creatures Trump has chosen to help destroy the lives of the non-rich.

This is demonstrative of agencies which are being run based on the personal motivations of the head of the agency. DeVos and her cohorts have long held interests in the for-profit segment of education as well as an inordinate interest in pursuing religious private schools as the primary means of educating America's young. Corporations and money interests are shaping our society and trump has opened the door wide to lobbyists and corruption. Pruitt is running the EPA at the behest of industry, at the expense of the health and well being of the American people and our beautiful natural resources (along with Zinke). People who want the best for all in this Nation, need not apply in this administration. People who want us to be the leading Democracy in the world once again need to go out and vote en masse in November to change the dangerous course this country has taken.

No surprises here. Education, a must and vital necessity for all people and the country’s future leaders/success is relegated to the murky White House swamps along with other vital human necessities which have gone by the way side. The chaos and proliferation of corruption in our government just doesn’t end.

Nobody should be surprised at this, except perhaps to wonder what took her so long. She rewards her cronies and fattens her pocketbook, showering disdain on struggling students who may well have been bilked by her preferred, for-profit “schools,” a la the late and unlamented Trump University. American traditions of supporting public education have been under attack for a while now; she is simply using her position to drive in the last nails in the coffin. Whether Trump supporters will be able to afford to get a decent education once she has finished job remains an open question, but they knew what they were voting for—the likes of DeVos.

Ha! No surprises here. The GOP again obfuscating their crooked, corrupt compatriots in defense of the almighty dollar. Party self interest again taking precedence over public safety from criminal intent.

Terrible but nothing can be done until there is a Democratic President. What this Administration is doing must be used to show that Trump is a fraud. His supporters believe he has been a successful businessman. But his string of bankruptcies, business failures, and cheating of people who worked for him, coupled with his refusal to release his tax returns belie this. The fraud he perpetrated at Trump University and the cheating of poor students there need to be called out to show exactly who he is.

This is de rigueur for Betsy DeVos’ amoral approach to administering our school system. She lost any credibility when her first order of business after her appointment was targeting protections for campus sexual abuse victims—highly suspect if not outright lascivious motivations. She is obviously not playing with a full deck!

Corruption, corruption, corruption. Undermining public education and abandoning justice for students who have been swindled.

Trump's alter ego in a dress . . . operating the DOE in the same way he operates the federal government, to personally profit at our expense and to obscure and obstruct when evidence (proof really) starts to stick to him. Or her.

And to ad insult to injury there is actually an advertisement for DeVry in this online article! If anyone thinks that not much damage can be done by this administration in a short time, this says the opposite. I don’t understand how anyone (thanks Congress!) can be onboard with this. For profit “colleges” exist only because they get Federal loans. They should not be allowed to use these loan programs. It is simply a direct infusion of our tax payments to the profit of these businesses. With Nothing benefiting our society in return.