HUFFINGTON POST: APSCU Letter to For-Profit Colleges: Our New Direction

Career College Central Summary:

Former congressman Steve Gunderson (R-WI), president of the for-profit colleges' main trade association, APSCU, this morning sent a dramatically-worded letter to APSCU members announcing organizational changes that "have the potential to create a new beginning for the sector and the association." In the circumstances, his words were reminiscent of Spinal Tap's David St. Hubbins, who boldly told a sparse amusement park crowd, "Hope you enjoy our new direction."
As Republic Report reported first yesterday, for-profit giants DeVry and Kaplan left APSCU last month, following the departures in the past year of ITT Tech, EDMC, and now-shuttered Corinthian. As we described in our piece, APSCU came to be dominated by such large publicly-traded and private equity backed companies in the past 15 years, and pursued an aggressive strategy to overturn regulations and defend the worst actors in the sector. Now that strategy has essentially failed — truths about industry abuses have spread, enrollments and share prices have dropped, and Obama Administration rules have been upheld. And now, these same big companies are fleeing APSCU.
Gunderson's letter, co-signed by APSCU's board chair, Roger Dalton, Vice President of American National University, opens ominously: "This letter may be as significant as any communication you have received from your Association in many years."

Click through to read the full article.