August 16, 2007

For-Profit College Could Face Return of $4.5-Million in Student-Aid Funds

Interboro Institute, a for-profit college in New York City owned by the EVCI Career Colleges Holding Corporation, could be required to repay $2.5-million to the U.S. Department of Education and $2-million to the State of New York in student-aid funds that it may not have been entitled to, the company announced today.

Interboro caters to students who have not graduated from high school but who can qualify for federal and state financial aid if they can demonstrate an “ability to benefit” from higher education. In January 2006 the state ordered the institution to limit its enrollment because of questions about its fast growth.

The amounts to be repaid were determined by an examination of the institution’s financial-aid records by the Department of Education. The examination, known as a program review, found that most of the money involved came from a dispute over which students would be eligible for federal aid. The department disagreed with Interboro’s contention that its students were eligible for the aid because they had graduated from Interboro, even though they had not passed a test to prove that they had an “ability to benefit.”

Interboro has until September 27 to appeal the finding to the department. —Goldie Blumenstyk

Comments

1. Fraud like this is invited by the laxity associated with Federal funding. Too many for-profits are well known to be in operation ONLY for the quick buck made available by taxpayers. The desire to help youth w/o high school to go to college or acquire skills is misplaced social engineering that just won’t work. This taints the public view of what use to be known as higher education. Greed and stupidity make for a bad mix in a fertile field like this.

   — OttoT    Aug 16, 04:56 PM    #

2. I beg to differ. Although it is true that many for-profits skate way too close to the line, the for-profit I work for takes a good deal of trouble to stay within the law while – wait for it – oh my goodness, make a profit! That virtually all institutions of higher education, particularly those enjoying less and less funding from the state, have become just as money grubbing as anyone else is something that should be considered as well.
   The for-profit I work for has campuses in three Southern states with historically depressed economies and high dropout rates. We graduate thousands of people who are highly motivated high school graduates, displaced industrial workers of all ages, and single working parents whose schedule won’t fit into a traditional college year. We graduate the nurse who tends to you at your bedside, the police officer who comes to your aid, and the networking engineer who keeps your campus connected to the Internet. Some of these discarded, forgotten people are the first in their family to ever have had the opportunity for higher education. If this is “misplaced social engineering” I’d like to see some more of it.

   — Tony Neuron    Aug 17, 12:03 PM    #

3. Like anything else, there will always be some bad apples in the barrel. I would point out that in the latest Financial Aid scandal, most are public institutions and non-profits and what about the scandal and fraud problems in the community colleges in Alabama and Louisina? In genreal, the public view of higher education is not determined by career colleges but by public institutions that use taxpayer’s money to operate with little accountablilty to student outcomes, e.g. jobs!

   — RonS    Aug 17, 12:47 PM    #

4. As much as the Chronicle holds itself to gossip-column mentality, it’s imperative not to view an entire college as a singly-motivated unit. Generalizing doesn’t work with educated people.

   As someone who teaches at Interboro, I can argue that although I don’t know who handles the funding, or how it’s handled, students are my most important concern. It’s not about profit for me. The ATB students clearly are benefiting, and they’re held to the same standards of two and four-year schools I’ve taught at in the other three corners of the country.

   I’m certainly not “profiting”; I make three hundred dollars a week teaching three classes. That’s not even my rent in New York. Yet, I still care, and I still teach.

   An education lasts forever. Anyone reading this paper can attest to that.

   Jessica Evans

   — Jessica Evans    Aug 19, 07:50 PM    #

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