The move is a sign of a shift in how the federal government will treat conversions.
The Education Department has offered its stamp of approval for the controversial sale of two massive for-profit colleges, Kaplan University and the Art Institutes, according to emails obtained by BuzzFeed News — allowing both schools to convert to nonprofit colleges.
The two high-profile conversions have been closely watched by the for-profit education industry, which sees them as a bellwether for future attempts to convert to nonprofits. More and more for-profit colleges have been eyeing conversions as the industry continues to struggle to enroll students.
But there were questions about whether conversions would be allowed by federal overseers. The Obama administration had begun to block such deals over concerns that schools would not actually operate as nonprofits, independent from the for-profit entity that once owned them. There were also worries in and out of the administration that nonprofit conversions were being used to evade regulations.
The approvals of Kaplan and the Art Institutes are a sign that under Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, the department is likely to take a far more laissez-faire approach to the conversions. The department, along with college watchdogs called accreditors, have ultimate say over whether the so-called conversions go through.