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- Written by: Editor
In the lawsuit, Attorney General Becerra alleges that Ashford made false promises and furnished faulty information to students to persuade them to enroll. It also used illegal debt collection practices when students struggled to pay their bills.
Attorney General Becerra seeks restitution for students, a permanent injunction prohibiting similar activities in the future, and civil penalties from Ashford University.
“No school should ever steal the American Dream from its students, but that is exactly what Ashford University did,” said Attorney General Becerra. “Ashford University preyed on veterans and people of modest means. This for-profit college illegally misled students about their educational prospects and unfairly saddled them with debt. In today's economy, college is too pivotal and precious to let a predatory for-profit company swindle our daughters and sons out of the higher education they'll need to get ahead.”
In 2005, Bridgepoint Education bought a tiny non-profit Catholic university in Iowa named Franciscan University of the Prairies.
Bridgepoint cut the school’s ties with the Catholic Church, rebranded it as Ashford University, and exploited the school’s access to federal education funds to build an online empire with over 80,000 students by 2012.
Ashford University proceeded to close the original Franciscan University's brick and mortar campus in Iowa in 2016.
Attorney General Becerra alleges that Ashford accomplished its massive growth with an army of “Admissions Counselors” who were really salespeople working in toxic boiler-room conditions.
The complaint alleges that Ashford's administration subjected these "Admissions Counselors" to extreme pressure to meet enrollment targets and that it verbally and psychologically abused them when they fell short.
The complaint further alleges that:
– Ashford's salespeople made a wide variety of false and misleading statements to prospective students to meet their enrollment growth targets, including how much financial aid students would get, how many prior academic credits would transfer into the school, and the school’s ability to prepare students for careers in fields like social work, nursing, medical billing, and teaching;
– For-profit Ashford misled investors and the public in its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission by inflating the percentage of working alumni who reported that their Ashford degree prepared them for their current job;
– Because of Ashford’s misrepresentations, Ashford’s students, many of them low-income, were often saddled with unexpected tuition expenses and other debts they could not afford. To collect that money, Ashford engaged in aggressive and illegal practices such as threatening and imposing unlawful debt collection fees.
Current and former Ashford University students and others who may have been harmed by Ashford’s misconduct who wish to file a complaint may contact the Attorney General’s Office at 800-952-5225 or www.oag.ca.gov/report .
Since assuming office, Attorney General Becerra has taken action to defend the rights of students in higher education.
He challenged the U.S. Department of Education's rollback of rules protecting students who take out college loans.
Becerra obtained more than $51 million in debt relief for Californians who attended corrupt Corinthian College, a for-profit school that defrauded its students.
He also urged Education Secretary DeVos to expedite loan forgiveness for Corinthian students.
A copy of the complaint can be found at www.oag.ca.gov/news.
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The program offers 14 categories of scholarships ranging from $1,000 to $2,500 each with varying eligibility requirements.
Categories include agriculture, art, academic excellence, business, culinary/hospitality/event management, education, international relations, trade school, viticulture and enology.
Applicants may apply for one scholarship category of their choice per year and will be evaluated based on academics, community service, quality of essay and recommendation.
Top scholarship winners in select categories may be invited to compete for the $5,000 Ironstone Concours Foundation Scholarship.
Scholarships are not renewable; however, students may reapply each year as long as they continue to meet the eligibility criteria.
The Friends of the California State Fair Scholarship Program is a collaboration between the Friends of the California State Fair, the California Exposition & State Fair, the California State Fair Agricultural Advisory Council, the Ironstone Concours Foundation, Blue Diamond Growers and Western Fairs Association.
International Scholarship and Tuition Services Inc., an independent scholarship management company, hosts the online application process and disburses awards for the program.
The deadline to apply is March 2, 2018.
Learn more at www.CAStateFair.org/scholarship.
For questions about the Friends of the California State Fair Scholarship Program, please email
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- Written by: Nicholas Phipps
“Martin is really showing initiative,” Siegel said. “He is getting graduated and moving on, he has his mind set on a goal and he’s going to achieve it.”
Principal Heather Koehler reported that he was one of two great examples of success pointed out to us by Woodland Community College.
On Nov. 3, Carlé gold level students of the first grade period (students who achieved more credit than a regular pace) were given the pleasure of taking a day off school in order to visit Paradise Skate Roller Rink in Lakeport, chaperoned by teacher Lance Christensen and Principal Heather Koehler.
During this trip to Paradise Skate Rink students skated in the roller rink, played arcade games and in addition to these activities the students were served pizza to eat for lunch.
After this adventure I questioned some students about their experience during the gold level trip.
Gold level student Marissa Doolin responded, “We had a lot of fun. We played skating tag which I thought was particularly fun. Even though everyone fell we all still had a ton of fun. I'm glad we got to go and if the opportunity came to go on another trip I would.”
“We all fell a lot, most of us fell at least 10 time but Lance (the teacher, we speak with the staff using first names) skated like a pro. The arcade games were a lot of fun,” said student Gilbert Lopez.
Finally the aforementioned Lance was asked about how he felt the trip went and he responded, “I had fun skating, the students spent about half the time skating and half the rest of the time eating pizza and playing games. All in all the student seemed to have fun and I only fell once.”
On Nov. 14 the gold level students for the second grading period were given a break from their academics as a reward for achieving above expected standards.
Students visited Scandia Amusement park in Santa Rosa and were chaperoned by teacher Lexi Fredricks and Principal Koehler.
Students were free to play any arcade games they would like, bumper boats, mini golf, and some small rides. I asked some students and staff how they felt.
“We spent a lot of the time on the bumper boats spraying each other. We also had a ton of fun playing mini golf and a bunch of arcade games,” said Taylor Churchill.
Shaina Yaquinto added, “All of us really enjoyed ourselves spraying each other in the bumper boats, the mini golf was also really fun.”
“People seemed to enjoy the arcade most. People spend a majority of the time there, I also enjoyed the arcade,” said Michael Naber.
Finally, teacher Lexi Fredricks added, “The drop zone ride was a blast, and everyone seemed to enjoy the arcade games; then we finished with mini golf which was also a lot of fun.”
Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves which is the goal of gold level trips, congratulations to everyone who got to attend the trip.
Nicholas Phipps is a student at Carlé Continuation High School.
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All three options, presented to the Board of Governors, are designed to assist older adults and so-called “stranded workers,” who need sub-associate degree credentials or short bursts of additional training to move ahead in today’s economy.
Dubbed Flex Learning Options for Workers, or FLOW, the project strongly aligns with the California Community Colleges system’s Vision for Success goal of better serving older adults who need non-traditional approaches to improve their skillsets.
The options developed do not compete for students already being served by community colleges, and all options build on the work of the system’s existing Online Education Initiative.
The proposals, along with the input from people who spoke in favor and in opposition to the approaches, will be provided to the governor for consideration.
“The Californians we seek to reach cannot stop working to get the education they need to get ahead, and many of them juggle multiple jobs to feed their families,” said state Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley. “As much as we would like to, we cannot will them onto our campuses. We need to rethink traditional delivery models and pedagogies and meet this population where and when they are ready to gain skills and credentials.”
Oakley and the working group tasked with responding to Brown’s request in May identified the target population as the 2.5 million Californians who have had some college but no degree or certificate as a core group. Language can be a barrier for this group, as 48 percent from Spanish-speaking households.
"With shifting student needs, the FLOW initiative provides community colleges with a direct way to deliver services to a critical population of students that have been unable to benefit from higher education,” said Cerritos College President Dr. Jose Fierro, who served as co-chair of the group that developed the three options. “We are hopeful that the proposed online models will finally give more Californians another pathway to education."
All options would use a flexible schedule rather than a traditional one, and students would access content through a subscription model, taking as many, or few, courses as they like. Support would be technology enabled with human contact. Online education would be coupled with hands on or work-based training in many cases.
“The approaches envisioned in FLOW leverage the high quality educational and student support services offered by the California Community Colleges and have the potential to create powerful collaborations with industry partners to help address the problem of economic stratification in our state,” said James P. Mayer, president and CEO of California Forward, a bipartisan public interest effort to bolster democracy and improve the performance of government in California.
Under the approaches presented to the Board of Governors:
Option No. 1 would use an existing campus to create a statewide delivery system with campus faculty and campus instructional designers creating content. College employer partnerships would be used and new ones developed statewide.
Option No. 2 would use an existing community college district to host a consortium of colleges that opt-in to collaborate on FLOW, with faculty coming from the participating colleges. The host district would employ or contract with instructional designers as well as develop employer relationships.
Under option No. 3, a new community college district would be formed and operate under the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, which would hire leadership for the competency-based program. Selected faculty would work with the new district’s instructional designers, and customize student services.
After the comment period ends, a full report containing all of the options will be presented to Gov. Brown for consideration and additional direction.
To read a full description of the options or to make a comment by the Nov. 22 deadline, please visit the FLOW Web site at www.doingwhatmatters.cccco.edu/ForCollegeLeadership/FlexLearningOptionsforWorkers.aspx.
The California Community Colleges is the largest system of higher education in the nation composed of 72 districts and 114 colleges serving 2.1 million students per year.