First, I want to state that I have never attended U of P, Kaplan, Argosy or any subsidiary of for profit corporations veiled as higher learning institutions such as Apollo Group, EDMC, et al. So why do I have the right to file a complaint? Because I'm a tax payer (will be explained further... Read on). What is the body of this complaint? I'm hoping that victims of these institutions can form a plan of action because frankly what is happening in my honest opinion is criminal.
I think victims of these organizations should do the following:
1- Go to your local police station and file CRIMINAL charges of fraud aginst the school you attended. Basically fraud is when an entity whether is is a person or organization or a person on behalf of an organization intentionally deceives the victim and causes harm (this can be physical or financial). The Mafia for years has been slapped with lengthy sentences for doing just that and I really see little difference here with these companies.
They do this to a specific demographic in this country, the poor and underprivaleged and to military veterans. Reason: Approximately 90% of these organizations revenue comes from federal money such as pell grants. This money is tax payer money (so yes I have a God damned right to be pissed!) which I happily pay so that my fellow Americans can improve their quality of life by getting a REAL education and receive better careers. I'm happy to pay for these taxes as long as they are effective in helping my fellow citizens.
There is a cap though and basically they can only receive 90% of their revenue maximum from these programs such as pell grants and stafford loans. The other 10% is targeted towards military veterans. Being that vets earned their GI Bill by serving which was a part of their contract that money is not something that they have to apply for but rather is their money to spend as they please. So it's a loop hole which means that 10% of the revenue comes from a group of people who technically "knowing all the risks" chose to attend these junk institutions.
Side note - I am a vet and have re-enlisted so I know they recruit heavily. They come around to our work areas trying to get us to sign up when we are constantly deploying (not likely we would ever have time).
2- Contact your state Attorney General and request that they file a state version of a RICO act against these organizations. RICO is Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Basically it allows the state to try organizations by association and as a whole that the organization and the individuals who participated in the act of the crime (i.E. They people who intentionally lied to you about your school, rankings, future career potential, tuition and fees... You get my drift, pretty much everything they said to you).
So file criminal fraud against your recruiter who lied to you and push to make sure that the "school" is also indicted through a variation of RICO.
3- Please join some class action lawsuit against these companies! In some way there must be some legal reprecussions so that these companies stop stealing money from EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US WHO LIVES IN THIS COUNTRY! They are gutting our federal money which we paid for through some loop hole for a joke of a higher learning institution! At least in some way if it became large enough these grants would be denied for some period or the companies assets will be frozen. Recently the CEO or U of P cashed SOME of his stocks and receive $59 million. Just as a comparison, the President of Harvard receive $700,000 salary. Seems a bit
That the worst "school" in the country's leader makes ridiculous multiples of the best school in the country's leader. Don't you agree?
4- File small claims against the organization as well. I think last time I checked There are approximately 380,000 current students at U of P. If there are that many disgruntled and stuck students, not knowing how many drop outs and alumni there are and just 25% of them filed small claims against U of P all at the same time there would be no possible way they could defend themselves in courts across the entire country. Your power is in numbers and if they seriously have burned that many of you, you can screw them right back and overwhelm them!
5- Barrage your representatives, call and go to and write your senators and congressmen! That being said I doubt this will do much as there seems to be a lot of these "representatives" who sit on the boards or these supposed schools.
For example:
Education Management Corporation (NASDAQ: EDMC) is an operator of private for-profit post-secondary educational institutions, primarily in the United States. The company's institutions provide primarily career-focused educational programs. It is the second largest for-profit college company in the United States, after the University of Phoenix.
The company is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and employs approximately 19,000 faculty and staff and had enrollment of approximately 158,300 students as of its fall 2010 semester. EDMC was founded in 1962, and is 41% owned by Goldman Sachs. The Chair of EDMC's Board of Directors is John "Jock" McKernan, Jr., the husband of Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and a former Governor of Maine from 1987 to 1995. The company operates a total of 105 individual schools, plus branches, under its four subsidiary names: The Art Institutes, Argosy University, Brown Mackie College, and South University.[1]
So if this is the case we have politicians who are supposed to be representing and protecting their constituency (meaning they work for us... Yes they are OUR EMPLOYEES), but are making waaay more money by letting these scams go on.
Honestly, this is the who..."meet the new boss... Same as the old boss." It was Countrywide and other criminal mortgage companies who did their whole credit default swaps and had their congressional buddies deregulate laws that were mean't to protect the consumer and the American people from this. But These same "ivy league" geniuses just screwed us the people and we got stuck holding the bill. And this school scam is the exact same thing all over again.
Think about it, we are having to foot the bill. I never went to these schools and I'm footing the bill. You the victim who graduated and can't get a job to save your life with this crap degree you can wipe you ass with... You enslaved in financial debt. It just keeps going on and on. This is just the newest way to rip us off as a country and get away with it.By the time something happens in which we the people are pissed and want someone to answer for it, a couple people go to jail. The majority of the crooks either get a promotion or retire from being politicians and have ridiculously high paying consulting jobs and so on.
And we always get by paying the bill.
I really feel that at this point these rogue companies can only exist because our government allows it to happen and they are completely comfortable burying the poor and underprivaleged with ridiculous amounts of debt that they can never get out from under. At this point we as Americans, citizens, students, taxpayers, consumers... Whatever need to all agree to have a blanket vote of "no confidence" with our elected officials, regardless of party. They let these companies virtually rape us and they get paid to do it!!!
I mean, only 7 out of 100 senators voted against the law that allows the government to lock up U.S. Citizens indefinitely without trial? That is a direct violation of our Constitution and our rights are INALIENABLE! That means that they can never take away our rights, ever, under any circumstances. But they just threw the 4th ammendment out the window.
They are doing this because when you are in debt and have shitty credit and you are terrified of losing your job cause the degree you got from U of P is means nothing and you have to take care of your family, etc. You won't stand up and get pissed off and tell them they're fired. It's like slavery never left, now we are all just indentured servants trying not to get in trouble or any further debt. They probably don't even want us (the 98%) to have good educations because we can realize one day that they suck at running the show and we can do better. Job security.
Anyways, a complete tyraid but don't lay down and take this shit. Don't get screwed into holding $10,20, 50k of debt for a completely fraudulent company. Throw that shit back in their face. It's completely acceptable to be civilly disobedient when there is an unjust system of lying to people wanting to better their lives. Don't let these politicians that are getting paid off ignore the fact that they are required to represent you! There are hundreds of thousands of you out there who went to these schools. Get together and stir shit up!
Side note - I'm not blaming one party or the other... At this point they're all equally useless and only their for their self interest IMO.
And also please do not stop trying to go back to school. We need to get educated in this country. There are a lot of good reputable schools that are doing online education now (if that's what you need for personal reasons). I know of a lot of good ones like FIU, Northeastern University, UMass online, WSU, etc. There are a lot of online schools now who will give you a real education which you will be proud of, where you won't be lied to and where you will get a good job for your future. Go find the right one and this time make sure you do your research.
If 500,000 people started sueing these schools at the same time, pressing criminal charges against those recruiters, just raising
... That would get the worlds attention and these companies and their lil organized crime bs would be running for the
. Go whip their ass!
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