Warren Questions Motives as For-Profits Seek Nonprofit Status
By Allie Bidwell, Communications Staff
Amid news that for-profit Grand Canyon University is again attempting to convert to a nonprofit entity, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) on Thursday sent a letter to the advisory body for accreditation agencies, urging the group to look into whether for-profit institutions are seeking nonprofit status to avoid oversight.
Warren sent the letter ahead of the February 7 biannual meeting for the Department of Education’s (ED) National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI). As of right now, Warren said in the letter, there is no planned discussion to address this trend.
"While the underlying predatory conduct of many for-profit schools is already cause for concern, a request for a change to non-profit status raises additional alarms and should be approached with extreme caution by accreditors," Warren wrote.
Already this month, Warren — who serves on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee — has been active in drawing attention to areas of concern she sees within higher education. Earlier last week, she joined with a group of other Democratic senators to write to Federal Student Aid (FSA) Chief Operating Officer A. Wayne Johnson requesting more information on a proposed prepaid card pilot program for students. And just after the new year, Warren wrote to ED Inspectors General and the Social Security Administration (SSA), calling on the offices to review ED’s proposed use of earnings data gathered under the gainful employment rule to determine the amount of debt relief for successful borrower defense claims.
In her letter to NACIQI, Warren said the advisory body should "make clear that it will closely scrutinize accreditors that do not carefully review such potentially fraudulent deals and create guidelines requiring increased scrutiny when these deals are brought to accreditors."
Warren asked NACIQI to consider conducting a review of guidelines accrediting agencies follow when reviewing conversion requests, and made several recommendations, including ensuring the approval processes are "significant factors" in NACIQI’s reviews of accreditors, conducting briefings or forums on "the dangers of non-for-profit conversions," and advising ED to set standards accreditors must apply when approving conversion requests.
Publication Date: 1/16/2018
David S | 1/16/2018 1:25:27 PM
"...Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) on Thursday sent a letter to the advisory body for accreditation agencies, urging the group to look into whether for-profit institutions are seeking nonprofit status to avoid oversight."
Uh, what oversight would that be? I think Senator Warren is wasting her time, but not nearly as much time as for-profits are wasting. In this era of the Department of Ed being led by a Secretary appointed by the founder of Trump University, we should be seeing the Golden Era of for-profits. In less than a year, it's hard to identify a Title IV-related move DeVos has made that wasn't for the obvious intention of making life much easier - and more profitable - for that sector. I have no idea why for-profits would be trying to make this switch now.
Donna F | 1/16/2018 9:18:19 AM
States should be responsible and take the accreditation role for any business PROFIT and NON PROFIT that is operating in their state. Accreditations agencies have had issues with their performance in the past. Pay for Play ?
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