Are you paying for your education via GI Bill? Congress presses VA to identify high-risk colleges

2015-06-23T08:31:11-04:00

WASHINGTON — Could tweaking the Department of Veterans Affairs website have saved some veterans from suffering through the collapse of Corinthian Colleges?

A group of congressional Democrats think so and on Monday asked the VA to give veterans researching the best use of the education benefits a heads up about for-profit colleges under investigation for suspicious activity.

Thirteen House and Senate lawmakers wrote a letter to VA Secretary Bob McDonald urging him to add a list of high-risk institutions to its online GI Bill education benefit tool as a way to arm veterans against what they say can be unscrupulous and predatory institutions.

“Veterans using the GI Bill comparison tool should be made aware that a school is under investigation by or has settled with federal or state enforcement agencies for misleading students or predatory practices,” the lawmakers wrote. “While an investigation does not amount to a finding of guilt, it does indicate that there are serious concerns with a school that warrant law enforcement action.”

The VA did not immediately return a request for comment Monday.

Corinthian Colleges ran into financial troubles and various investigations last year before shuttering all of its locations in April and leaving about 16,000 students — many who were veterans using GI Bill benefits — in the lurch.

The for-profit college collected $186 million in taxpayer dollars through Post 9/11 GI Bill education benefits before its collapse, according to the lawmakers.

Troubled or suspicious institutions are known by the federal government. The Department of Education maintains a list of schools that are on “heightened cash monitoring” for the receipt of federal student aid. A school can make the list for a variety of reasons, including missing audits, financial troubles and accreditation issues.

Corinthian Colleges was placed on the list last summer.

More than 540 institutions are on the latest monitoring list released in March, and lawmakers say 59 percent of those are for-profit businesses like Corinthian. But that monitoring information does not make its way to prospective veteran students through the VA site.

“The VA could easily modify its GI Bill comparison tool to include information on whether a school has been placed on HCM [heightened cash monitoring],” according to the letter.

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Congress presses VA to identify high-risk colleges

A group of congressional Democrats believe so and on Monday asked the VA to give veterans researching the best use of the education benefits a heads up about for-profit colleges under investigation for suspicious activity.

Response by 1SG Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 23 at 2015 8:36 AM

2015-06-23T08:36:30-04:00

I transferred my GI Bill to my wife after I had it converted to the post 9/11 version. She did her due diligence before choosing a college. However, I will give the VA credit...they seem to be doing a much better job managing education benefits for our veterans than health care benefits.

Response by SSG Izzy Abbass made Jun 23 at 2015 9:28 AM

2015-06-23T09:28:29-04:00

It would be additionally good if Congress would push the VA to overhaul the metrics used by the VA to track success. Right now, it shows a somewhat low rate of success for Vets going to school. The problem however, is that the VA only counts first time students, who start and end at the first school they attend, as part of the metric. Transfer students don't count. So, anyone with credit they received for their military experience (Colorado mandates that all state schools look at DD214s and provide equivalent credit) don't count, anyone who took college classes or anyone who started at a community college and then transferred to a 4-year institution do not count towards success under the GI Bill.

Why is this important? Because Congress looks at the success rate of the Post 911 GI bill and says "hey, this isn't working very well so no problem if we cut it". Food for thought folks.

Response by CW4 Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 23 at 2015 11:35 AM

2015-06-23T11:35:11-04:00

So far, I have been very pleased with the 3 universities that I have chosen to earn my degrees. I used UoP for my AA, Ashford for my BA and now TUI for my MA and all three have been very user friendly and faculty and staff have been very helpful and we communicate often. I only use $200 per class from my GI Bill and $1000 from TA with the Top Up program, so far so good. Thanks for the post, very interesting. Everyone should take their time and ensure that each university is on the up and up before going down that path.

Response by PO1 John Miller made Jun 23 at 2015 12:16 PM

2015-06-23T12:16:59-04:00

They should also look at whether or not these for-profit schools are degree mills, giving out passing grades just for participating.

For example, I took a class at University of Phoenix, Introduction to Programming. I have absolutely no idea how I passed it yet I did getting an overall A. My program that I had to write didn't work yet I still passed. Huh???