For-profit schools group unveils best practices - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

For-profit schools group unveils best practices

A group representing the much-maligned for-profit higher education industry released a report Wednesday outlining best practices for schools to follow, including tight oversight of recruiting, in-depth financial counseling for students, and tracking of veterans’ educational progress, among other proposals.

The panel that developed the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities report consisted largely of officials from for-profit schools, but it also included military education and veterans’ groups.

Read the report (PDF)

Representatives of those groups told Military Times that their recommendations were listened to and incorporated into the final document, dubbed the Report of the APSCU Blue Ribbon Taskforce for Military and Veteran Education.

“I’m generally satisfied. I think it was a good first step,” said Ryan Gallucci of Veterans of Foreign Wars, who served as a special adviser to the task force.

“I think the next step would be — particularly for APSCU schools — to take a look at this report, implement these to the best of their ability, and for APSCU to possibly develop not just best practices for schools, but possibly standards of conduct for their members.”

The for-profit colleges group is not ready for that second step yet.

“At this point, we absolutely believe that if we lift up the best practices, our schools that are serious about engaging, enrolling and serving veterans and active-duty military will do it without the threat of regulation or compliance,” said Steve Gunderson, president and chief executive of the for-profit consortium. “Obviously, if problems continue to exist into the future, there will be a new round of focus on the kind of regulatory aspect that you’re talking about.”

Gunderson added that the report “will answer the concerns of fair-minded critics.”

Tom Tarantino, chief policy adviser for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America — which has been one of the most vocal critics of for-profit schools and was not invited to participate in the APSCU task force — had mixed views.

Tarantino said it is important for the industry to establish and publish best practices, and he found the report’s guidelines to be good, though not ground-breaking.

But if the for-profit consortium is unwilling to require its member institutions to follow the recommendations, the report “amounts to a 15-page PR campaign,” he said.

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and others have sharply criticized for-profit schools in recent years, accusing them of taking advantage of military students for their college benefits by aggressively recruiting them and then providing a poor education.

Michael Dakduk, executive director of Student Veterans of America and an adviser to the APSCU task force, said that while some for-profit schools have done wrong, it’s not fair to tar all such schools. Whether veterans choose to go to for-profit or public state schools, what’s most important is ensuring they are fully informed about the costs and benefits of the education they want to pursue.

“We need to make this conversation about consumer education,” Dakduk said.