Fallout From For-Profit College Chain’s Closure Could Have Been Prevented – The Chronicle of Higher Education
The announcement on Wednesday that the Education Corporation of America was closing some 70 colleges that it owns was a big shock to tens of thousands of students and employees at those campuses. It was much less of a surprise to some higher-education experts who have been following the company’s recent troubles.
“When you look at the outcomes for the ECA schools, they’re challenging at best,” said Steve Gunderson, chief executive of Career Education Colleges and Universities, a trade group that lobbies for such institutions. Enrollment had been plunging at the company’s institutions, and “everyone knew they had financial problems,” he said.
Antoinette Flores, who researches higher-education policy for the Center for American Progress, explained that the U.S. Department of Education had placed financial restrictions on the colleges nearly a year ago because of ECA’s struggles. “The writing has been on the wall for a long time,” she said.