March 11, 2019 – Steve Gunderson, President & CEO of Career Education Colleges & Universities issued the following statement:
“Once again, schools that are not members of CECU are abruptly closing causing untold, and unacceptable damage to their students. In doing so, these schools just disappear. But all the multi-generation family-owned schools in our sector are left with a bad reputation created by somebody else.”
“The real tragedy, again, is the students who have lost their education investment in terms of time, and dollars. Since 2017, our sector has been so concerned about these abrupt school closings that our membership recommended paying a per-student assessment to the U.S. Department of Education to create programs that prioritize services for students in such cases.”
“Right now, the Department and accreditors are focused on other things than the students, and that has to change. We must put in place procedures that will work with challenged schools to place every student in programs that finish their degree of study.”
“Among other steps, we call upon the Department to eliminate existing rules that prevent other school operators, with strong academics and sound finances, to:
- Immediately use the closed location to continue education classes;
- Acquire the assets of the closed school, including lab equipment and classroom desks, etc., without regard for the closed school’s debts and liabilities.
“We call upon Congress to move expeditiously to reauthorize the Higher Education Act, and to include these provisions.”