Members Ask For Standard Public Comment Period And Completion Of Ongoing Investigations Into Department Of Education’s Involvement With Dream Center Schools
WASHINGTON—U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Sherrod Brown (D-OH today called on the U.S. Department of Education to delay the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity’s (NACIQI) review of the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) currently scheduled for July 29-30. The Senators highlighted media reports that NACIQI will be reviewing a report by the Office of Postsecondary Education that alleges HLC was out of compliance with accreditation criteria related to actions it took in the Dream Center case. The issue stems from HLC’s accreditation decisions in the wake of the announced purchase of the former Education Management Corporation schools by Dream Center Education Holdings (DCEH)—a transaction that raised concerns from the beginning. There are now ongoing investigations into whether top Department officials—including Principal Deputy Undersecretary Diane Auer Jones—inappropriately pressured and publicly discredited HLC in an effort to distract from the Department’s own wrongdoing and mishandling of Dream Center.
The Department has also abandoned longstanding practice to solicit public comment prior to NACIQI’s review of an accreditation agency for its review of HLC.
“A rushed review that shuts out public input and precludes the findings of critical government investigations into matters relevant to the review would have little credibility. The credibility and independence of NACIQI, itself, would be called into question. Therefore, we respectfully ask that the Department delay NACIQI’s review of HLC in this matter until the current investigations into the Department’s handling of Dream Center and a proper public comment period is completed,” wrote the Senators.
In June 2018, Durbin urged HLC to investigate reports that Dream Center was misrepresenting the accreditation status of its Illinois Institute of Art and Art Institute of Colorado campuses. In August 2018, Durbin also led Blumenthal, Brown, and Senator Elizabeth Warren in asking the Department to respond to troubling allegations that Diane Auer Jones had encouraged Dream Center to misrepresent its accreditations status. And, later, Durbin and Representative Rosa DeLauro asked the Department Inspector General for an investigation into, among other things, the accreditation misrepresentation issue.
Full text of the letter is available here and below: