Blumenthal Applauds Department of Education Action to Protect Students from Negligent For-Profit College Accreditor

[WASHINGTON, DC] – Today U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) applauded the Department of Education for withdrawing federal recognition of the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS), one of the country’s largest accreditors of for-profit colleges.

“With ACICS asleep at the wheel, thousands of students have been deceived and defrauded by bad actors in the for-profit college industry. For far too long, this delinquent and derelict accreditor has rubber stamped the flow of federal dollars to colleges and universities that engaged in widespread fraud and abuse,” Blumenthal said. “I applaud the Department of Education for taking action today to revoke this negligent watchdog’s status as a trusted gatekeeper of taxpayer dollars, and I urge the Secretary to deny any appeal of this decision made by ACICS.”

Following a Department of Education staff recommendation to terminate the federal recognition of ACICS, Blumenthal led a letter joined by U.S. Senators Patty Murray (D-WA), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) to the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI), writing: “there is overwhelming evidence that ACICS represents a threat to the integrity of accreditation and higher education in America and that its inadequate review process has put students at risk.” Text of the lawmakers’ letter is available here.

The Center for American Progress found that one in five students at ACICS-accredited schools default on their loans, and more than half of the $5.7 billion in federal student aid awarded to ACICS-approved schools in the past three years went to institutions facing some sort of state or federal investigation, including the former Corinthian Colleges.

On Tuesday, Blumenthal led his colleagues in passing the Department of Veterans Affairs Expiring Authorities Act, which grants the Secretary of the Veterans Administration the authority to provisionally approve programs for GI Bill use should they lose accreditation. The legislation will helped avert the loss of critical education and housing benefits for tens of thousands of veterans across the country affected by today’s decision.

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