When Stratford College, a for-profit school with a handful of campuses in Virginia and Maryland, introduced final month it was going to shut, officers solely gave college students one week of discover earlier than lessons ended for good.
The information made Stratford the newest in a protracted line of for-profit schools to shut precipitously. These sudden closures typically depart college students scrambling to determine the place their credit can switch and learn how to end their training.
Stratford President Richard Shurtz, who owns the college along with his spouse, blamed the closure on the U.S. Division of Training.
The division lately revoked recognition of Stratford’s accreditor, the Accrediting Council for Unbiased Faculties and Faculties, leaving the college with 18 months to discover a new company or else lose entry to federal monetary support. Within the meantime, the division positioned heavy restrictions on schools accredited by ACICS, together with limitations on their enrollment.
Shurtz stated these actions made it not possible for Stratford to outlive financially. However some coverage specialists contend the college might have taken actions months in the past to alter its destiny.
ACICS’ recognition has been underneath assessment — on and off once more — for the reason that Obama administration, with the newest risk to its recognition lasting greater than a 12 months earlier than it was yanked. That gave Stratford ample time to discover a new accreditor and keep away from the Training Division’s restrictions, coverage specialists stated.
“Accountable it on the division is deceptive,” stated Michael Itzkowitz, a senior fellow at Third Means, a center-left assume tank. “The writing has been on the wall for about 18 months now.”
‘Six years of discover’
The way forward for ACICS had been doubtful a number of years earlier than the Training Division revoked its recognition in August. The company stated it was stripping the company of recognition due to continued noncompliance with the division’s requirements, resembling having sufficient sources and employees experience.
It wasn’t the primary time the Training Division yanked recognition from ACICS, which predominantly accredits for-profit schools. In 2016, the Obama administration ended recognition of ACICS throughout a crackdown on proprietary establishments.
The Trump administration reinstated the accreditor after ACICS waged a authorized battle in opposition to the Training Division. However division officers repeatedly raised points with ACICS — even after it regained recognition.
As an illustration, Virginia state regulators flagged a university accredited by ACICS, Virginia Worldwide College, in 2019, alleging that the for-profit establishment was residence to rampant plagiarism and poor on-line training. And in 2020, a USA Immediately investigation discovered that one other ACICS-accredited establishment, Reagan Nationwide College, didn’t seem to have any instructors or college students.
In June 2021, a prime Training Division official denied ACICS recognition. However ACICS appealed the choice.
By the point the Training Division revoked ACICS’ recognition in August — for the ultimate time — the accreditor solely oversaw about two dozen establishments. That’s down from greater than 230 when ACICS first misplaced recognition in 2016.
Barmak Nassirian, vp for increased training coverage on the curiosity group Veterans Training Success, questioned why Stratford needed to shut this time ACICS misplaced recognition. Stratford has been accredited by ACICS since at the least 2002, effectively earlier than the accreditor misplaced recognition for the primary time.
“It actually form of strains credulity guilty the division on this,” Nassirian stated. “The establishment has had higher than six years of discover that its accreditor is in hassle.”
Shurtz stated Stratford was in search of accreditation with the Distance Training Accrediting Fee however didn’t reply to emailed questions on when college officers submitted an preliminary software. Making use of for DEAC accreditation can take at the least two years, and the company can deny establishments after reviewing their curricula, outcomes and different issues.
DEAC insurance policies additionally forbid establishments which have utilized for accreditation from suggesting that they’re accredited or can be accredited till accreditation has been granted.
Who is de facto liable for the sudden closure?
The Training Division positioned a number of restrictions on ACICS-accredited establishments that needed to proceed collaborating in Title IV applications, which embody Pell Grants and federal scholar loans. Shedding entry to this funding supply can show deadly for a lot of schools.
The division stated it will bar establishments from enrolling new college students who couldn’t full their applications inside 18 months and requested schools to supply monetary collateral within the occasion they closed.
The enrollment restrictions have been an excessive amount of for Stratford to bear, based on Shurtz. When the closure was introduced, he stated that new college students accounted for about 40% of the college’s income.
Nassirian flagged the reliance on these college students as a problem.
“Why is it that they’re so reliant on new enrollments to service their present college students that they’ve to shut so instantly?” Nassirian stated.
Coverage advocates have steadily known as on the Training Division to watch the monetary well being of schools to forestall sudden closures. However state regulators even have an element to play in flagging monetary points, based on Dustin Weeden, a senior coverage analyst on the State Greater Training Govt Officers Affiliation.
“There’s some challenges with for-profits as a result of they are usually advanced buildings working in a number of states, so it’s not all the time straightforward for states to actually consider the monetary well being of establishments,” Weeden stated. “However there’s an enormous function for states to try this.”
When states discover schools may very well be in monetary hassle, they will ask them to supply teach-out plans, which assist college students switch to totally different establishments to complete their training.
The Training Division didn’t reply Wednesday whether or not Stratford had offered a teach-out plan.
Stratford was working with the College of the Potomac and Chamberlain College, two for-profits, to simply accept a number of the establishment’s college students, Shurtz stated when the closure was introduced.
The college was nonetheless engaged on discovering different establishments for college kids in sure fields, such because the college’s culinary program. Shurtz didn’t reply to a request for remark Wednesday.
The State Council of Greater Training for Virginia is offering college students with an inventory of six different establishments to which they will switch. All however one are for-profit schools.
A SCHEV spokesperson stated Stratford hasn’t been regulated by the company since 2010. A Virginia legislation permits personal establishments to be exempt from SCHEV oversight as soon as they’ve been regulated by the company for 20 years.
The Maryland Greater Training Fee’s web site stated it’s working with Stratford to collect particulars concerning the closure and can put up teach-out alternatives when info is out there.
Stratford’s Baltimore campus is already slated to be transformed into flats, the Baltimore Enterprise Journal reported. A neighborhood developer stated he purchased the positioning from the college in Could 2021 for nearly $3 million.
Preexisting teach-out plans could make closures far more orderly, Weeden stated.
“Even when an establishment does shut,” Weeden stated, “it’s not similar to, ‘We’re closing. Good luck.’”
