Evidently every part of the Trump administration believes it is above the law. The Washington Post reported today that the Education Department spent millions for student aid at for-profit colleges that were ineligible to receive federal
funding.
A trove of documents released Tuesday by the House Education and Labor Committee shows the Education Department provided $10.7 million in federal loans and grants to students at the Illinois Institute of Art and the Art Institute of Colorado even though officials knew the for-profit colleges were not accredited and ineligible to receive such aid.
The documents build on prior reports from the committee describing efforts by Education Department officials to shield Dream Center Education Holdings, owner of the Art Institutes and Argosy University, from the consequences of lying to students about the accreditation of its since-closed schools. Now it appears the Education Department tried to shield itself from an ill-fated decision to allow millions of dollars to flow to those schools.
Rep. Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (D-Va.), chairman of the House Education Committee, is threatening to subpoena Education Secretary Betsy DeVos for more documents related to the department’s role in Dream Center’s actions. Scott says the agency has obstructed the committee’s investigation and refused to answer questions, as emails and letters paint a picture of a federal agency complicit in an effort to place profits before students.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education and commented:
Did she send a big check to Trump University?
Then her and little donny can split the profits.
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The Dream Center is a legacy from the Bush faith-based initiatives.
The large network of “Art Institutes” were staffed by under-employed artists, graphic designers, photographers and other in the visual arts who were not always interested in teaching or able to do a decent job. The for-profit management also created a hostile work environmnet for instructors and in too many cases defrauded students. These observations come from persons I know who taught at the Cincinnati Art Institute before it closed.
Almost all of the services provided by the Institutes are now available online where ripoffs persist from fly-by-night profit seekers. But,the courses once offered by these institutes are also availablle from the online programs of many accredited universities and community colleges.
I think the Devos money was thrown to a faith-based outfit with not an ounce of concern for students.
https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2011/august/dreamcenter.html
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Holy cow and omg … this dump and his DISGUSTING administration are all totally corrupt and I believe are agents of foreign power(s).
I also recognixe that ever since Reagan, this country’s leadership or lack thereof have set the stage for this kind of utterly and total selling out of America to corporate greed and control.
Devos should stand trial for her obvious fraudulent practices. Good grief.
This goes behind DISGUSTING.
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spell check error …. meant “BEYOND DISGUSTING.”
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The bottom line is they do a lousy job advising and informing prospective students.
You really have to wonder who they work for- it isn’t students.
It would be better to just tell students that the system is completely unregulated and they will have to dodge scams and rip offs themselves- that would be more honest and is better advice. At least then they have a fighting chance.
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likely our nation’s most powerful future leaders will be those students who have been told just that: the “accountability” game is a trap
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A friend of mine showed me an insert that the US Department of Education now puts in the student loan payment bill. It warns students that there are scams and rip offs and they shouldn’t be charged for information on student loans.
Do we not have prosecutors or law enforcement anymore? This is the best these people can do? Send a letter out to the victims telling them to try to identify crooks?
It’s a joke. They hold no one accountable for anything. The rip offs continue year after year after year. Are we really that weak and helpless a country, that we have to put up with outright fraud and robbery?
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The Federal Gov’t has been downsized to the size of a postage stamp. The Fed jobs that were deleted during the big shutdown of the Obama years was just the beginning. Many Fed employees are now saying “screw it” (due to all the bad politics) and leaving for the private sector. It’s every man for himself in the wild, wild west of America.
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No surprise – like a lotta mega-rich, she clearly believes the law is for the little people, not her. plus she is a pretty awful person that ignores data or facts cuz her beliefs transcend reality. the billionaire girl club may be small but it’s pretty arrogant and myopic too
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Unfortunately, that club is also big enough to contain a couple Education “Reformers”–Ditzy DeVoid and Laurene Jobs Powell, for example.
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Media reported today that management of an art institute involved in the lawsuit brought by a student against the U.S. Dept. of Ed. was 40% owned by Goldman Sachs.
15% of government financial aid funding is spent for for-profit students. In 2015-2016, the for-profits generated $17 bil. in revenue. We know Trumps’s cabinet takes care of their rich friends.
The for-profits’ new scheme is to change their letterhead and advertising, identifying themselves as non-profits. We’ll likely see the charter model where the for-profits are in the stage wings pocketing a transfer of funds.
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The same reporting identified Providence Equity Partners which in 2017 acquired NACE- 11,000 students enrolled in Spain, India, etc.
NACE shows us how students in elementary schools can have the places and ways they learn owned by profiteers from any nation.
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Also identified, Leeds Equity Partners, who in 2017 bought Fusion Education Group which operates schools in 8 states and D.C.
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I want the House Education Committee to subpoena Betsy the Brainless DeVos, and then watch her refuse to appear.
Then I want to see all of those that refuse to answer to a House Subpoena end up in prison fined to the hilt, … according to the law.
Contempt of Congress
Congress has the authority to hold a person in contempt if the person’s conduct or action obstructs the proceedings of Congress or, more usually, an inquiry by a committee of Congress.
Contempt of Congress is defined in statute, 2 U.S.C.A. § 192, enacted in 1938, which states that any person who is summoned before Congress who “willfully makes default, or who, having appeared, refuses to answer any question pertinent to the question under inquiry” shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and subject to a maximum $1,000 fine and 12 month imprisonment.
Before a Congressional witness may be convicted of contempt, it must be established that the matter under investigation is a subject which Congress has constitutional power to legislate.
Generally, the same Constitutional rights against self-incrimination that apply in a judicial setting apply when one is testifying before Congress.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/contempt_of_congress
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Am I allowed to say “Lock her up” or would that be in bad taste?
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How about “Lock Her Up For Life”
In fact, let her share a co-ed cell with Donald Trump.
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LOL: L’enfer, c’est les autres.
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Is it surprising that the guy who gave you Trump University would appoint the woman who married into the Amway multilevel marketing scam to be his Secretary of the Department for Privatizing US Education, formerly the USDE?
Ditzy DeVoid, Christian Warrior, if, that is, you think that Jesus taught, “Blessed are the poor, because they can be scammed.”
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Your final paragraph, Bob, says it all.
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Trump has this in common with Betsy. He loves the uneducated. He said so.
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Like unequivocally, Bob. And thanks.
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This just in:
“and we’re building a wall in Colorado, we’re building a beautiful wall, a big one that really works that you can’t get over, you can’t get under” –Donald Trump, geography prize competition winner
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After Trump boast about his wall, Representative Diana DeGette responded, “Is NEW Mexico gonna pay for it?”
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Well, if the wall is in Colorado, you can’t get over or under it from Mexico (not without an airplane or a tunnel several hundred miles long, at least).
It’s actually a very clever strategy.
And, even better, if he builds his wall on the moon, no one would ever get over it, not even with a plane –except the cow, of course.
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Not incidentally, if they build the “wall” in Colorado, they can undoubtedly get away with just a four foot white picket fence, which will save billions and look much nicer.
So, IF they are bound and determined to build it, Colorado is definitely the preferable location.
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Hmmm. You are onto something here, SomeDAM. If we built The Wall out of Lincoln Logs, about four inches high, in, say, Iowa, this would be much cheaper (and environmentally destructive). And The Wall, ofc, will be equally useless wherever they build it.
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Yes, good thinking.
Lincoln logs would definitely be good, although I think a nice white picket fence has its advantages, since good fences also make good neighbors.
But these are just the sort of nonpartisan conversations we need to have about the border wall.
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And although good Lincoln logs also might make good neigbors, i have never heard that expression.
But I don’t live in Iowa. So maybe that’s why.
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While we are on the subject of Lincoln logs, maybe we can get the kindergarteners to build a Lincoln log house around Betsy. To protect her from grizzly bear attacks, of course.
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The other thing is that California New Mexico, Arizona and Texas were all once part of Mexico anyway. So it actually makes sense to build the wall further north.
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Come think of it, maybe we can just lease the Great Wall of China for the purpose and save a bundle
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OK, Trump supporters, if you want a new object for your idiotic chants of “Lock her up,” Secretary DeVos looks like a stellar candidate for the position.
Just sayin’….
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There is a legal problem with locking her up: it would be cruel and unusual punishment to all the other inmates, which would violate the Constitution’s eighth amendment.
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Besides, if Betsy got locked up, who would be the teachers’ advocate on the grizzly bear threat to schools?
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Hahahahahaha! Excellent, SomeDAM!
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I once considered becoming SomeDAM lawyer instead of SomeDAM poet.
But I figured the former category was already overrepresented, so I took the road less traveled by and that has all of the DAM difference.
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In support of my cruel and unusual punishment argument before the Supreme Court
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Betsy would buy the prison and release herself.
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Mark and SomeDAM: HAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!
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