10/29/17: Now that the story has leaked (good work, free press) Puerto Rico scraps the Whitefish Energy contract, which is sad for both full-time employees. Rumor has it, employees gathered at a Whitefish tavern, where they filled two seats at the bar, to drown their sorrows.
For-profit college hires the sluttiest girls.
Otherwise, it’s a fine fall Sunday. We assume Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, a true Christian lady, is enjoying a day of rest. DeVos needs it. She has been spending an inordinate amount of time on the road, visiting America’s elementary and secondary schools. At least the ones run by for-profit charter operations. She’s a huge fan of vouchers, charter schools and corporate education. She believes in her heart that if we put the future of education in the hands of Big Business we’ll get “business efficiencies” in schools and all our children will live happily ever after.
What could go wrong???? (See: Whitefish Energy; 10/28/17. See also: 8/20/17; 9/8/17; 9/18/17; 10/17/17.)
Last, but not least, by a few billion, Secretary DeVos has been working hard to keep students in higher education safe from the predatory practices of the for-profit college sharks. She has done this by making it harder to hold those SAME crooks accountable for those same practices. Her handpicked choice to guard against fraud in the for-profit college industry is Julian Schmoke Jr.
What was Mr. Schmoke’s previous job, which fit him to ferret out fraud? He worked for DeVry University, which settled a $100 million lawsuit for perpetrating fraud upon students.
Robert Eitel is another top adviser. His experience with
for-profit colleges includes working with another pirate organization, one
forced to refund $23.5 million to students related to bogus loan
deals.
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NONE OF THIS CROOKERY is to be confused with famed Trump University (forced to repay $25 million to bilked students).
Nor are we talking about Corinthian College (fined $30 million for deceptive practices, now defunct, leaving taxpayers on the hook for $183 million in student loans that must be forgiven).
We also do not intend to link the fine enforcement policies of Secretary DeVos to stories about Education Management Corporation (forced to pay a $95.5 million fraud settlement and later ordered to offer $103 million in restitution in a second case), Career Education Corporation (which paid a $10.25 million fine) or Ashford University (fined $7.25 million after recruiters lied to students).
We do not mean to say that the Secretary would turn a blind
eye to the misdeeds of Charlotte School of Law (forced into bankruptcy in the
wake of a fraud scandal), Chester Career College (fined $5 million after
students complained courses were a “sham”), ITT Educational Services
(forced to close 130 locations after students filed a class action lawsuit alleging predatory
lending practices) or Le Cordon Bleu ($40 million settlement in a suit filed by students).
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LET’S FINISH OUR LIST with a for-profit college bang! Consider the trials (many) and tribulations of Alejandro Amor, founder of FastTrain College in Florida. Business was good for a time. Amor bought a 54-foot yacht. He had his own private plane. He could afford a $2 million home on the beach.
What went wrong at his fine institute of learning? Investigators found FastTrain had enrolled 1,300 students who lacked high school diplomas and lied about their eligibility to win federal loans.
My favorite part of the story comes by way of the Miami Herald:
Ex-employees told investigators
that Amor boosted enrollments by hiring former strippers as recruiters, some of
whom wore “short skirts and stiletto heels” to work. Amor told one employee to
“hire some hot mommas” and “hire the sluttiest girls he could find.”
And, lo, it came to pass. The courts ruled. FastTrain went off the trestle and smashed up in a ravine. The school closed and Amor went to jail. And the slutty recruiters went back to doing what they did best.
Stripping.
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Kind of the look they were going for. |
