DOJ sues for-profit college group for $11bil financial aid fraud

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Monday August 08, 2011 · 8:12 PM PDT

2011/08/08 · 20:12

Federal regulators have taken more interest in for-profit colleges since GW Bush left office. Until recently, regulations have been lax or poorly enforced. Meanwhile, a growing number of these for-profit institutions of higher learning have served as giant conduits for sucking federal financial aid money out of the public trust and into the hands of the private investors who own the colleges. Most of the money is student loan dollars, which are non-dischargeable debt owed by the student.

Until this week, the highest profile action against a for-profit school was the U.S. Department of Education's lawsuit against the University of Phoenix, which settled in 2007 for $9.8 million. Now the New York Times reports that:

The Department of Justice and four states on Monday filed a multibillion-dollar fraud suit against the Education Management Corporation, the nation’s second-largest for-profit college company, charging that it was not eligible for the $11 billion in state and federal financial aid it had received from July 2003 through June 2011.

The most interesting thing about this lawsuit (aside from the potential $33 billion in damages) is that the ownership of Education Management Corporation includes some names you might recognize: Goldman Sachs, and Maine senator Olympia Snowe.

loretta

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Thursday August 21, 2008 · 1:29 PM PDT

2008/08/21 · 13:29

We're all a little bit edgy since McCain started climbing in the polls and bloggers here and elsewhere have been fishing around for an explanation--things like, "Obama's too wimpy," or, "He shouldn't have gone bodysurfing," or "He threw his base under the bus." I have a completely different explanation: McCain's climb in the polls was inevitable and would have happened no matter what Obama did. If you like this faintly mavericky challenge to Left Blogistan's conventional wisdom, read on.

Poll

65 votes Show Results

Obama has dropped by 7% in Illinois because

65 votes Vote Now!

Obama has dropped by 7% in Illinois because

All the right-wing voters living south of Chicago have resigned themselves to voting for McCain

22 votes

Obama isn't managing his message correctly

7 votes

I dunno--it's a weird statistical anomaly

12 votes

He needs to buy more houses in his home state

13 votes

Michelle shops at Target instead of Williams Sonoma

11 votes

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DOJ sues for-profit college group for $11bil financial aid fraud

Polling: Obama Not Really Slipping Where It Counts