| The email below is from Mike DiGiacomo, a CREDO activist in Randolph, Massachusetts. Mike started a petition on CREDO Mobilize, where activists can launch their own campaigns for progressive change. Will you help Mike pressure the Department of Education to hold accountable predatory for-profit colleges that take advantage of students. Sign his petition and share it with your friends and family. | ||
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| Sign the petition: Hold predatory for-profit colleges accountable. | ||
When I left the Army, I wanted to pursue a career as a video game designer. A recruiter for the for-profit Gibbs College in Massachusetts, owned by Career Education Corporation, told me their program would put me on a fast track to a job at a video game company. But the experience left me with poor training and a worthless degree, and the paid internship they promised turned out to be an unpaid assignment doing the laundry of a wedding photographer. Now, after I was ripped off in a similar way by another for-profit college, The Art Institutes, I'm unemployed with more than $85,000 in student loan debt. For-profit colleges have about 13 percent of U.S. college students but account for nearly half of student loan defaults. Many of these schools get close to 90 percent of their revenue from taxpayer dollars. But they spend more of that money on marketing, big CEO salaries, and profits for Wall Street private equity firms than on educating students. That's why I started my own campaign on CREDOMobilize.com, which allows activists to start their own petitions. My petition, which is to the U.S. Department of Education, says the following: Strengthen proposed regulation to protect students from predatory colleges that mislead students and leave them buried in debt.Tell the Department of Education: Protect students from predatory for-profit colleges. It's time that predatory career colleges like ITT Tech, Everest, The Art Institutes, Argosy University, Sanford-Brown Institute, Heald College, Kaplan University and The University of Phoenix are held accountable for abusing students and ripping off taxpayers. Career education programs are supposed to prepare students for jobs where they can earn a living, including the ability to repay their student debt. But far too often, these schools ruin students’ lives. What's worse, these schools often target vulnerable populations, including veterans and disadvantaged communities, who can least afford costly and worthless degrees. Sign the petition: Protect students from predatory for-profit colleges. The Department of Education recently proposed a rule to hold career education programs accountable. But the proposal is full of loopholes and giveaways to schools. We need a strong rule that protects students from sham colleges that leave them with overwhelming debt and dismal career prospects. To adequately protect students and taxpayers and prompt schools to quickly improve or end weak programs, we need to build pressure on the Department of Education to strengthen its proposed rules and do far more to hold predatory for-profit colleges accountable. Will you join me and add your name to my petition urging the U.S. Department of Education to crack down on for-profit colleges that mislead and take advantage of students? Thank you for your support. Mike DiGiacomo
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