Chairman Scott Asks Education Department to Clarify Role in Collapse of For-Profit School
“…The actions of Dream Center and the Department of Education’s execution of its responsibility to protect students raise grave concerns.”
WASHINGTON – Today, Congressman Bobby Scott (VA-03), chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor, sent a letter to Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos expressing deep concern over the Department’s role in the abrupt closure of Dream Center Education Holdings—a recently defunct, for-profit higher education company.
The letter details newly obtained documents suggesting that the Department of Education enabled Dream Center to mislead students regarding the accreditation status of two Dream Center-owned schools. The documents also reveal that despite knowledge of Dream Center’s false claims of accreditation, the Department did not immediately require the for-profit company to take corrective action. Instead, the Department supported efforts to retroactively accredit the institutions in question by rewriting Department policy.
“…The actions of Dream Center and the Department of Education’s execution of its responsibility to protect students raise grave concerns. As you can see, the information referenced from the documents obtained by the Committee raise questions about the extent to which the Department met its responsibility to protect student interests amid the collapse of Dream Center,” said Chairman Scott. “In light of the serious concerns raised by the newly-obtained documents, the Committee is requesting information from the Department regarding its handling of the Dream Center collapse and the accreditation of certain Dream Center schools.”
In the letter, Chairman Scott formally requests information regarding the Department’s handling of the Dream Center collapse—pointing to concerns that Department officials were not forthcoming to Congress and the public about their knowledge of Dream Center’s practices.
The documents obtained by the Committee include internal emails among Dream Center executives outlining their decision to ignore the instructions of their accrediting body to remain transparent with students. Additionally, the documents describe communications between Dream Center and the Department of Education revealing the Department actively worked with the company to misrepresent accreditation at the expense of students and taxpayers.
To read the letter, click here.
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