Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is pressing the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to restore the benefits of student veterans who have been defrauded by “deceptive for-profit schools.”
Madigan, along with the state attorney generals of California, Connecticut, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington, sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert A. McDonald demanding that the VA restore education benefits to vets who attended expensive and unaccredited schools, like the now-shuttered Everest College, which had six locations in Illinois that were operated by Corinthians Colleges, Inc.
The attorney generals argue that the students were recruited to the schools under the false pretense of getting jobs in their desired field upon graduation. The student vets later found that “their degrees or credit hours were worthless and not recognized by employers or other higher education institutions.” Oftentimes, the student vets did not learn of the true value of their educational endeavors at the schools in question until they had already maxed out their benefits.
“Veterans earn educational benefits through their heroic service to our country,” Madigan said. “They should not return home and become targets of predatory, bogus colleges whose only interest in our veterans is to profit off them. It’s critical that our tax dollars allow student veterans to get a true education and the opportunities it provides.”
In addition to requiring that the VA to educate vets about the dangers of enrolling in “misleading for-profit schools,” the attorney generals also suggested that Veterans Affairs address the issue in the following ways: