Decker College was a proprietary (investor-owned and for-profit) comprehensive business school. It has 5,700 students, 500 faculty and staff and multiple campuses in Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky, Atlanta, Georgia, Indianapolis, Indiana, and Jacksonville, Florida. [1] The school was closed in September 2005, and filed for bankruptcy following a disagreement with the United States Department of Education about accreditation of its construction-related courses and online instruction. [2] According to former U.S. Senator Alfonse D'Amato during the 2006 Republican primary for Governor of New York, William Weld, former Governor of Massachusetts and chief executive of the college from January to October 2005, was responsible and oversaw "multimillion dollar looting". [3]
On June 10, 2009, the Associated Press reported that the case against Decker College had been dropped, and no charges had been filed. Robert Keats, bankruptcy trustee for Decker College, disclosed the status of the investigation to a federal bankruptcy judge in a filing made public June 9. "There are no indictments, no further investigation," he stated. According to the AP, U.S. Attorney spokeswoman Dawn Masden confirmed that the investigation was closed with no indictments. [1]
On August 12, 2016, the Decker College bankruptcy case was re-examined, with a Kentucky federal high court ruling and overturning false allegations made in 2012 by Education Department employee Ralph LoBosco. The verdict showed the potential for falsification of all evidence against Decker College, which erroneously led to the Department of Education's termination of the school's accreditation and federal funding. The late verdict allowed Decker College to regain its new life." [4]
The University of Louisville (UofL) is a public research university in Louisville, Kentucky. It is part of the Kentucky state university system. When founded in 1798, it was the first city-owned public university in the United States and one of the first universities chartered west of the Allegheny Mountains. The university is mandated by the Kentucky General Assembly to be a "Preeminent Metropolitan Research University". It enrolls students from 118 of 120 Kentucky counties, all 50 U.S. states, and 116 countries around the world.
DeVry University is a private for-profit university with its headquarters in Naperville, Illinois. It was founded in 1931 by Herman A. DeVry and is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. DeVry is predominantly an online educator but does have campuses in the United States.
ITT Technical Institute was a private for-profit technical institute with its headquarters in Carmel, Indiana and many campuses throughout the United States. Founded in 1969 and growing to 130 campuses in 38 states of the United States, ITT Tech was one of the largest for-profit educators in the US before it closed in 2016.
William Floyd Weld is an American attorney, businessman, author, and politician who served as the 68th Governor of Massachusetts from 1991 to 1997. A Harvard and Oxford graduate, Weld began his career as legal counsel to the United States House Committee on the Judiciary before becoming the United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts and later, the United States Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division. He worked on a series of high-profile public corruption cases and later resigned in protest of an ethics scandal and associated investigations into Attorney General Edwin Meese.
Sullivan University is a private for-profit university based in Louisville, Kentucky. It is licensed to offer certificates and diplomas, associate's, bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees by the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. According to the Kentucky Council, for the 2015–2016 academic year, 40% of Sullivan's full-time, first-time associate degree students received their degrees within three years.
The Art Institutes (AI) are a collection of independently operated art schools in the United States. Since 2019, the schools have been owned by Education Principle Foundation, a non-profit that also owns South University. The Art Institutes offer programs at the certificate, associate's, bachelors, and master's levels. The Art Institutes have faced accreditation and legal issues and student loan debtors have appealed to the US Department of Education for debt cancellation through defense to repayment claims. These efforts are premised on allegations they were defrauded. The student debt group "I Am Ai" has acted as a support group for students and former students of the Art Institutes, offering advice about debt cancellation.
Morris Brown College (MBC) is a private Methodist historically black liberal arts college in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded January 5, 1881, Morris Brown is the first educational institution in Georgia to be owned and operated entirely by African Americans.
The Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS) is a non-profit education corporation that was recognized until 2022 by the United States Department of Education as an independent and autonomous national accrediting body.
Perdoceo Education Corporation(PRDO) is a private company that owns four for-profit universities in the United States: American Intercontinental University, Colorado Technical University, California Southern University, and Trident University International. The company was previously known as Career Education Corporation.
Corinthian Colleges, Inc. (CCi) was a for-profit post-secondary education company in North America. Its subsidiaries offered career-oriented diploma and degree programs in health care, business, criminal justice, transportation technology and maintenance, construction trades, and information technology. A remnant of the schools was owned by ECMC under the Altierus Career College brand until the last three campuses were closed in 2022.
Everest University was an American private university based in Florida. From 2015 to 2020, the schools were operated by nonprofit Zenith Education Group, after former for-profit owner Corinthian Colleges shut down its operations. It was founded in 1940 as Fort Lauderdale College of Business and Finance and later known as the Florida Metropolitan University, a name it held until 2007. The Florida-based university offered online courses for students throughout the country. Programs focused on career orientation, offering day, night, weekend and online programs for working adults, with programs and schedules varying by campus.
Everest College was a system of colleges in the United States, and with Wyotech, made up Zenith Education. It was until 2015 a system of for-profit colleges in the United States and the Canadian province of Ontario, owned and operated by Corinthian Colleges, Inc. In 2021, former Everest students were made eligible for automatic student loan debt relief through the US Department of Education.
Daymar College is a for-profit college based in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1963 and operated as Owensboro Business College until 2001, Daymar College offers more than 35 career tracks in 22 different academic programs. Daymar College is accredited by the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges (ACCSC).
Stratford University was a private university based in Virginia. Founded in 1976, Stratford delivered online, classroom, and blended online/classroom programs. It closed at the end of the Fall 2022 semester after losing its accreditation.
Watterson College was a private, for profit 9 month, non-accredited bankrupt college that was operated by a Kentucky Corporation with branches in several states, including operations in California from 1987-1995. It offered associate degrees and trained students in various entry-level professions such as court reporting, medical assisting, retailing, and paralegal services. The college registered students while it was insolvent. It continued to operate long after administrative dissolution and received federal funding under false pretenses, promising the federal government it was working to fix its accrediting issues, which it never intended on doing and its bankruptcy filing is proof of their ill intent to deceive student borrowers and run away with their money. Watterson College Pacific was fined millions of dollars by the courts for commingling accounts with its parent company called, 'Careercom'. Students of Waterson College Pacific were abruptly shut out by the school when administrators abruptly abandon the property. The government ordered a refund to students.
Anthem Education Group was a Florida-based organization that operated a chain of for-profit, technical schools in the United States, called Florida Career College. In 2018, their website listed 11 campuses, ten in Florida and one in Houston, Texas. Anthem was accredited by Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS). International Education Corporation (IEC) now holds all Anthem Education Group liabilities
Education Management Corporation (EDMC) was a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based operator of for-profit post-secondary educational institutions in the United States and Canada. The company was founded in 1962. At its peak in 2011, Education Management Corporation operated 110 schools through its higher education divisions: Argosy University, The Art Institutes, Brown Mackie College, and South University, and enrolled 158,300 students.
A diploma mill is an organization that awards academic degrees and diplomas with substandard or no academic study and without academic approval by officially recognized educational accrediting bodies or qualified government agencies. The purchaser can then claim to hold an academic degree, and the organization is motivated by making a profit. These degrees are often awarded based on vaguely construed life experience. Some organizations claim accreditation by non-recognized/unapproved accrediting bodies set up for the purposes of providing a veneer of authenticity.
Harris School of Business (HSB) was a for-profit college with locations in the northeast United States, and was a subsidiary of Trigram Education Partners. According to the US Department of Education, "HSB’s last day of educational instruction was Oct. 9, 2020, which serves as its official closure date for purposes of the federal student aid programs." Students may apply for a closed school discharge of their federal loans. HSB was founded in 1965 to provide post-secondary educations in allied health and business management. In August 2020, the US Department of Education cut off Title IV funds to the schools.
Daniel Jay Cameron is an American lawyer and politician serving as the 51st Attorney General of Kentucky. He is the first African-American, and the first Republican since 1943, to be elected to the office. In May 2022, Cameron announced his candidacy in the 2023 Kentucky gubernatorial election.