Another For-Profit College Faces a Student Lawsuit

Another for-profit college faces charges that graduates are finding their degrees worthless. This time it's Beckfield College, located in Florence, Ky.

Two students say the college misled them about interest rates on their student loans and the cost of tuition and that, more importantly, the college did not tell them that its bacherlor's degrees are not recognized by local law schools.

Alicia Becker and Lindsay Reeves say they had both hoped to attend law school but learned after graduating that Northern Kentucky University and other nearby schools did not recognize the Beckfield degree.

The subject of private, for-profit schools is already on Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway's agenda. He announced last December that his office was launching an investigation into questionable business practices by for-profit postsecondary schools. Conway said the practices may violate Kentucky's Consumer Protection Act and other state laws. 

"Several students of for-profit schools contacted my office, and I have been monitoring recent legislative hearings regarding this issue," Conway said.  "The information we've obtained so far about the business practices employed by some of these proprietary colleges is troubling."

"Appropriate degree"

Becker says that when she entrolled at Beckfield, the admissions officer assured her that Beckfield's Paralegal Studies Bachelor's Degree Program at Beckfield “would be an appropriate degree for going on to law school."

Reeves says she had a similar experience when she enrolled in Beckfield's Criminal Justice Bachelor's Degree Program in the spring of 2008. After she filled out an online form, she says, "Representatives of Beckfield called Reeves several times per day in an aggressive attempt to recruit her."
During these calls, "Beckfield assured her that Beckfield was a good choice if she wanted to go to law school, and they repeatedly represented that Beckfield was a good value,” the complaint alleges.

Reeves said she later switched to an Associate's Degree program to finish her Beckfield education more quickly. She applied, was accepted by and paid to reserve her place at Northern Kentucky, only to learn that NKU would not accept any of her 96 credit hours from Beckfield and would requiring her to start over as a freshman.

Both women also say Beckfield misled them about the interest rates of their student loans and the cost of their education.

Lobbyists to the rescue

For-profit school executives and their lobbyists have been fighting the Obama Administration and Congressional efforts to ensure that for-profit schools deliver quality outcomes in return for the growing amounts of federal aid going to the industry.

In the Senate, the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee issued a report in December 2010 warning: "Serious questions have emerged about the share of the military educational benefit pool going to for-profit schools with questionable outcomes."

Committee chair Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said that by extending benefits similar to the GI Bill to current veterans, "Congress may have unintentionally subjected this new generation of veterans to the worst excesses of the for-profit industry: manipulative and misleading marketing campaigns, educational programs far more expensive than comparable public or nonprofit programs, and a lack of needed services."

The for-profit colleges make big profits on federally-guaranteed loans but critics say that even students who graduate - a small percentage - aren't likely to snag the kind of high-paying positions they're led to expect.

For-profit schools exploded over the last decade. They appeal to working adults seeking training that will help them advance their careers, veterans and active-duty military hoping to smooth the transition to civilian life and, in many cases, those who did poorly in high school and are unable to gain admittance to more selective universities.