Crown College Loses ACCSCT Accreditation!

Finally, it has happened, Crown College's accrediting agency the ACCSCT could not ignore the antics and misadventures of John Wabel and Sheila Mullineaux (both pictured) and their merry gang of deceitful thieves who have been running a reverse Robin Hood scam, stealing from the poor and giving to the rich, mainly themselves. They have systematically instructed their admission representatives to lie to students about the transferability of their credits since at least 1998. About 50 victims of this fraud have come forth and the testimony of ten of them was instrumental to the jury finding that Crown College had violated the Consumer Protection Act in early 2006. It takes a "special" person to blatantly lie repeatedly to poor students who are attempting to improve their economical standing. A letter from the ACCSCT dated July 31, 2007, that it has revoked Crown College's accreditation. Unfortunately, many of the students that they swindled will not get their day in court or any other recompense. One of the reasons that Crown College was able to get away with their little charade was because they fell into a regulatory crack. Since they granted degrees the were not under the auspices of the WorkForce Board. Since they had been operating in Washington state for some time accredited by an agency recognized by the Department of Eduction, to wit, the ACCSCT they were exempt from the HEC Board. By virtue of the ACCSCT pulling their accreditation, they have lost that exemption. If they "reopen" they will have to apply to the HEC Board for approval. Hard to see how they will merit such approval and if they do, the HEC Board will certainly by a more stringent master than the ACCSCT and will not put up for their deceptive practices.

Hmmm, does that mean that regulation works, well eventually maybe and helped out by other factors, mainly a trio of successful lawsuits and the resulting mass of bad publicity. The ACCSCT has had Crown College on probation more times than Alan Sandler had bad dates. In fact, they were on probation when they were first sued back in January of 2006. A Pierce County jury found that they had violated the Washington State Consumer Protection Act and the judge awarded a $6,000 judgment and $77,000 in attorney fees. They settled another lawsuit for $87,000. Those lawsuits shined a decidedly unflattering light on the school. According to an article in the Puget Sound Business Journal, this may well be the final demise of a school which was built on not too subtle lies and deception.

There is an article in the Seattle Times about Crown College closing. I thought I might die from lack of oxygen, it being very difficult to breath while laughing. "Not a dry eye in the building." Who knew that crooks could cry, well apparently when it comes to be separated from their money. I wonder how many dry eyes are among their many student victims. Sheila Mullineux talks about how they are the Little Engine That Could School which is apparently the party line. In reality, they are a school that has generated money based completely on lies and they have lied with astounding impunity and a disregard for reality that is astonishing in its scope. They have probably built up such an immunity to truth such that their tongues might break out in sores if they spoke it! John Wabel denials that Crown's admission representatives lied to prospective students ratchets up in direct proportion to the evidence they they did. At the Gonzalez trial, one of the jury members told me that Mr. Wabel was his own worst enemy and he continues to be. In a Tacoma News Tribune they claim they will do some restructuring and reopen. Perhaps they mean the installation of truth monitors...

Approximately 50, and counting, former students have come forward and told attorneys or news media that they have been told by Crown College admission representatives that Crown College's credits would transfer to regionally accredited schools. Crown lost one lawsuit and settled two. There are two more pending lawsuits right now. Dale Pryor v. Killebrew/Dalton, Inc., John Wabel and Sheila Mullineux, Pierce County Case No. 07 2 060885 and Roberta Swigert and Janelle Page v. Killebrew/Dalton, Inc. and John Wabel, also in Pierce County Superior Court. In the second lawsuit, the plaintiffs have schedule a motion for default as the defendants have not filed an answer.

California Regulation of For-Profits and Why National Accreditation Does Not Stop Fraud

Per a Inside Higher Education article, California's Governator characterized the statute and regulations that created Bureau for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education, which regulates for-profit vocational post-secondary schools, “fundamentally flawed,” in a message vetoing an extension of it. This will leave the state's for-profit, career, technical and vocational school industry unregulated if the legislation is not replaced by July 1, 2007. Actually the statute worked rather well until it was amended in 1997 by a Republican legislature in response to complaints from for-profit schools as explained by a 2000 article San Francisco Weekly which details the the history of regulation of for-profit trade schools in California. It is a must read for anybody wondering about how California vocational school regulation came to this somber state. The article details how California went, from its haven as a diploma mill in the early 1980s, to the passage of the Maxine Waters School Reform and Student Protection Act in 1989, which created the Council for Private and Postsecondary Education and which cleaned up the for-profit education. That act expired in 1997 and Governor Pete Wilson vetoed an extension of it. Then of course, the for-profit vocational schools lobbied to eviscerate it and the Republican legislature gave the for-profit industry its wish and diluted the protections in the original legislation not to mention reducing the contributions schools had to make to a tuition reimbursement fund. Thus here were are now..

The bill being argued before the California legislature would exempt institutions regionally accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, or WASC, from the state’s private college oversight system, which has always focused on unaccredited, or nationally accredited for-profit colleges. This is not new, the old law also exempted WASC. However, nationally accredited schools want the same exemption arguing that their accreditation is just as good as regional accreditation and is recognized by the Department of Education.

This is an argument these schools have been circulating for some time now, just like water in the toilet before it hits the drain. The schools who have a history of deceiving students are nationally schools, Crown College (Tacoma), Court Reporting Institute, Florida Metropolitan University, Brooks College, Bryman College and these are just the ones that come readily to mind. Did their accreditors do anything to stop them from deceiving students? That would be negative. Court Reporting Institute (CRI) was shut down by the Washington state licensing agency and finally filed for bankruptcy protection while the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS) did nothing and that isn't the first time this has happened. The Department of Education and New York State regulators shut down two ACICS accredited schools while ACICS stood idly by. If California is going to exempt nationally accredited career, technical and vocational schools from its regulatory scheme, why bother having regulations at all?

National accreditors have shown precious little inclination to regulate the schools they accredit. Accrediting isn't regulation I guess. I watched while educators and students sent extremely serious complaints to the ACCSCT about Crown College and yet they continued to deceive students and offer a sub par education. ACICS ignored the problems with CRI as the state finally shut them down. These accreditors time appears to be taken up more with lobbying for their schools and against regulating them.

What's the Difference Between Vocational and Academic Education? Campaign Contributions!

Well obviously there are other differences, most notably quality! Regional accreditation conferred on academic, mainly non-profit institutions is far superior to national accreditation which is generally conferred on vocational, technical and career colleges. However if you put enough money in the pockets of the powers that be -- in this case politicians -- you can bend reality to suit what you think it should be, or more specifically the version that you can profit from. Of course, in the phrase "for-profit education" the inflection is on profit!

Speaking of phrases, remember the phrase, history is written by the victors? Well reality can be written by those who contribute the most (lobbyists) to those who shape it, (politicians). Remember the Bush Administration's Clear Sky's Act which, in a rather Orwellian sense, would produce more pollution. It can be difficult to dodge the subterfuge in the title of some legislature. The key to ascertaining the truth is to examine the what politician is sponsoring it, or better yet, the party sponsoring the sponsor! Well the coal, oil and gas industry sponsored Bush so that indicates that the Clear Skys Initiative, regardless of its title, would help the energy industry and thus not lead to clear skies at all, quite the opposite. Got it now?

So, let's apply that lesson to the bill College Access and Opportunity Act which was sponsored by the Hon. John Boehner who is pictured above. That bill, fortunately, languished at the end of the 109th Congress. However, like any cinematic monstrosity, there will be a sequel. Anyway, let's look past the benign title of the bill and see who sponsors its sponsor John Boehner. According to Campus-Progress Mr. Boehner receives tens of thousands of dollars from the for-profits educational industry (He receives lots of money from banks that make federally guaranteed loans to students too, but that is another blog entry). So considering the sponsorship of the bill, well the dual sponsors, John Boehner and well his sponsors, the for-profit education industry, one has to think this bill might have to do more with for-profit education's access and opportunity rather than anyone else! Hmmm, ironically enough, the bill may be appropriated named! Well, the lesson worked! This bill is a great boon or investment return for the sponsors aka the for profit education industry, an industry worth at least $26 billion and funded mostly by the federal government student aid programs. They win big if it passes.

Let's take one provision, language that would state that no regionally accredited school could reject a nationally accredited school's (most of which are for-profits) credits just because they are nationally accredited schools. We visited this topic briefly in a previous entry. This would mean that regionally accredited schools would have to evaluate every single credit in order to justify its rejection. To fully understand exactly what some of these nationally accredited schools teach, let's look at the schools the ACCSCT (American Commission of Career Schools and Colleges of Technology) accredits.

The ACCSCT is the national accreditor which accredits Crown College and is a major force behind the transfer of credits legislation that would favor the schools it accredits. They are one of the largest national accreditors. According to their Accreditation Standards and the schools they accredit it becomes clear why regionally accredited schools are very reluctant to take nationally accredited schools credits. ACCSCT only accredits schools, as defined in I.A.11 of their Standards of Accreditation, which are "postsecondary institution with trade, occupational, or career-oriented educational objectives" not academic educational objectives! This fact becomes even more clear when one looks at the 802 schools they accredit, only a small percentage of which even offer degrees and a smaller amount still that offer bachelors degrees. Looking at a directory of schools they accredit. They accredit schools that teach massage therapy, refrigeration, helicopter aviation, pet grooming, cosmetology, and culinary arts just too name a few. The majority of the schools they accredit offer diplomas or certificates in trades and are obviously not academically oriented. It is also obvious why a regionally accredited school, academically oriented college or university would not want to accept their credits for transfer. To make these schools evaluate each credit is rather ridiculous. What cosmetology or pet grooming credits are going to transfer to the University of Washington or Yale University and how much money should they have to spend to "evaluate" them????