Beshear said the council’s “extreme and far-reaching oversight failures” caused serious harm to Kentucky students and taxpayers by enabling fraud and abuse by predatory for-profit schools.
“The Department of Education terminated ACICS’s recognition just over a year ago due to its pervasive oversight failures, so any attempt by ACICS to become nationally recognized once again should be treated with great skepticism given its history,” Beshear said.
Under the Department’s regulations, the attorneys general assert, ACICS cannot meet the threshold eligibility requirements for receiving national recognition.
Accreditors serve a critical role in ensuring that schools provide students with an education that meets minimum standards of quality. They function as gatekeepers, protecting students from abuse by institutions that offer education of little-to-no value.
When accreditors fail to fulfill this responsibility, they enable abusive schools to engage in misconduct that can be devastating to students.
According to the comments, ACICS’s oversight failures include its decision to extend accreditation to the now-defunct Corinthian Colleges.
In Kentucky, Corinthian Colleges targeted Kentuckians under the name Everest College and Everest University, offering online classes. Corinthian also marketed its WyoTech program in Kentucky attempting to recruit Kentuckians to its WyoTech campuses in Pennsylvania and Florida.
Beshear said nearly 2,000 Kentucky students, and 24,000 students nationwide, have already been approved for loan forgiveness but are experiencing delays. He has asked DeVos to approve loan forgiveness for these students.
“ACICS’s previous stint as a nationally recognized accreditor provides a stark illustration of the damage done to both students and taxpayers when accreditors fail to fulfill their oversight responsibilities,” Beshear said. “During these years, ACICS willingly accredited predatory schools that left students across the country and in Kentucky mired in debt and without the quality education they were promised.”