John McCain, Senate leaders spar over U. of Phoenix, for-profit schools

WASHINGTON – Several Senate leaders, including Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., are squaring off with each other and the Obama administration over the conduct of University of Phoenix and other for-profit schools, and the response of the federal government.

The flurry of letters, news releases, newspaper commentaries and tweets continued last week when McCain and Republican Sens. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee; Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee; and Johnny Isakson of Georgia, chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, wrote to Education Secretary Arne Duncan. Jeff Flake, Arizona's other GOP senator, also signed the letter.

The legislators demanded information about an interagency task force they said was working behind the scenes to “unfairly target” the University of Phoenix and other for-profit schools.

University of Phoenix barred from U.S. bases

For-profit schools have been criticized for overly aggressive recruiting and for having too many students who don’t finish their degrees and are left burdened with debts they're unable to repay. Much of the schools’ revenue comes from federal tuition programs.

The task force, they said, includes the Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Internal Revenue Service, and the departments of Justice, Defense and Veterans Affairs, among others.

The senators said they are concerned about the lack of public information about the activities of the task force, its authority and mission.

The senators also are concerned that Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, met with leaders of the task force on Nov. 18. They said they only learned of the meeting because Durbin tweeted about it, describing the task force as "critical for making certain we’re holding #4profit colleges accountable to students and taxpayers."

Durbin is a longtime critic of some for-profit colleges and universities. He took to the Senate floor last month to highlight an investigative report by the Center for Investigative Reporting that claimed deceptive marketing practices and an infringement on military trademarks by the University of Phoenix.

Later, the Defense Department placed the University of Phoenix on probation and temporarily banned the school from recruiting on military bases.

McCain, Flake urge review of U of Phoenix military base ban

McCain, Alexander and Flake wrote Defense Secretary Ash Carter last month asking him to review and possibly overturn the probation decision.

In addition to asking for more information about the task force they say is targeting the University of Phoenix, the group of GOP senators sent another letter asking to meet with the group's leaders. A spokeswoman for McCain said he has yet to hear back about either request.

They asked to receive the information about the task force by Dec. 1 and to meet with its leaders by the end of the year.

An Education Department spokeswoman pointed to a fact sheet posted on the agency's website in June which includes three paragraphs about the creation of the task force.

It states the task force will "enhance the enforcement activity at the (Education Department) as well as at other federal and state agencies through tighter coordination of their activities and better information sharing to protect students from school practices and policies that are unfair, deceptive, and abusive, and that put taxpayer funds at risk."

Meanwhile, legislation was introduced in the House and Senate this month that would reduce the percentage of total revenue for-profit institutions can receive from the federal government to 85 percent. Durbin and several other Democratic senators introduced the Senate version.

Currently, for-profit college companies are allowed to receive no more than 90 percent of their revenue from federal financial-aid programs. But money from the new GI Bill and from DOD tuition-assistance programs isn’t counted in those totals.

Contact Bill Theobald at wtheobal@gannett.com or follow on Twitter @BillTheobald