A Chicago-based equity firm that includes Obama’s best friend, Marty Nesbitt, and former Obama political appointee, Tony Miller, who was the Deputy Secretary and Chief Operating Officer for the Department of Education from 2009 to 2013 is a primary investor in the purchase of Apollo Education Group (University of Phoenix). (click here to read Fortune Magazine article)
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Could the seven-plus year assault on the for-profit industry and ED’s false reporting of gainful employment rates and cohort default rates that devalued Apollo’s stock (APOL) prices from $89.22 in January 2009 to $8.62 today (2/8/16) have been orchestrated? If your answer is YES, isn’t this INSIDER TRADING at its very best?
And, what are the terms of this change of ownership? What did ED include in the terms of the change of ownership for Obama’s best friend? Could it include waiver from liability for prior audits or legal issues? ED didn’t approve a change of ownership for several good performing Corinthian schools to a private buyer. What exactly do they mean by “transformation efforts”? Could the change of ownership provide future options for a designation as some type of community college where FREE education would line the pockets of the investors while claiming non-profit tax status for those needing a cover for their wealth? We’ve all seen cases where non-profits provide mansions, yachts, expensive cars and other outrageous perks to those who run their institutions.
Let us all keep in mind that the value of this company will multiply the minute that gainful employment is removed—something that is likely if a Republican is elected as President. And, maybe the biggest question should be, where will Obama be spending his time when that happens? With his profiting friends at Vistria Group? (also see Inside Higher Ed)
Read more about the audited facts contained in Injustice for All to see the lengths that Obama’s Department of Education has gone to devalue and defame the proprietary sector that actually has the highest graduation rate of all sectors at an average 60.4% at the lowest average student loan cost per graduation percent of $117 (College Navigator FY 2010 data), an average FY 2012 Cohort Default Rate (CDR) of 13.9% that is exactly the same as the public sector, and where 930 colleges or 57.3% of all proprietary schools have CDRs under 15% (compared to 909 colleges or 58.0% of all public schools.)
There is no doubt that there are some schools that need to be held accountable for wrong-doings in the proprietary sector —as well as in EVERY other sector of higher education. This does not make every school in the for-profit sector bad. In fact, if all of the reports coming out of the Department of Education were true and accurate, why don’t the reports match the corresponding data? And, why isn’t ED producing the back-up data for these reports? For example, ED left out the “median debt” data for the debt-to-earning rates in the FY 2012 gainful employment (GE) informational data released during the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in March 2015. I’ve already proven that the FY 2011 GE rates were inaccurate and there were actually only 6 failing programs, so would it be reasonable to think that this information was intentionally omitted so that the rates could not be verified for accuracy? The government talks about transparency, but where is the enforcement of it?
And, why are some schools held to a high level of scrutiny while others are given a pass card simply based on their tax-filing status? Non-profit does not ensure quality or ethics—in fact, it often encourages a lack of these important aspects of education. The bottom line is that every school in ALL sectors of higher education should be held accountable to the exact same standards for delivering a quality education at a reasonable cost to the students and taxpayers.
Our children’s future depends on it!
