Student Loan Debt, No jobs!
DANE LOCKMAN HAS $40,000 IN STUDENT LOAN DEBT AND NO JOB, Wired from CNN.com
ATLANTA – Dane Lockman saw a commercial advertising Westwood College while watching late-night television. The then-29-year-old single father, with a budding interest in web design, decided he would be the first in his immediate family to attend college. By October 2006, he was enrolled in the for-profit institution to complete a bachelor’s degree in graphic design. To pay for school, he took out $40,000 in private and government loans.
Lockman says he earned A’s and B’s at Westwood, but he wanted to take his education further by transferring to Georgia State University in late 2007, a public school that is regionally accredited, which is considered to be the “gold standard” of college education. But since Westwood is nationally accredited, Georgia State University refused to recognize Lockman’s credits. Lockman says Westwood admissions representatives never warned him about the difference.
“I went into it really blindly,” Lockman said. “I tried to do everything on my own.” Today, he’s without a degree or a full-time job and unable to pay back his loans. He says his savings are gone. His credit score is shot because of his student debt, and he can’t get credit cards. His student loans will incessantly haunt him, even if he declares bankruptcy. Lockman is not alone. At least 750 former Westwood students and employees have come forward with complaints about the school engaging in deceptive recruiting practices that have left some students with an unmanageable amount of debt, according to a class-action lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Denver, Colorado, in August.
Some students, like Lockman, have also complained that the school failed to give them accurate information about future job prospects or whether their degrees would be recognized by other schools or employers. “This is a massive problem that’s going to change the face of education if this isn’t corrected,” said Jillian Estes, an attorney at the Florida law firm James, Hoyer, Newcomer, Smiljanich & Yanchunis P.A., which filed the suit against Westwood. “This isn’t only about the students; this is about you and I. Taxpayer money is funding the deceptive practices these schools are using. This has to be everyone’s problem.”
Westwood College, owned by Alta Colleges Inc., is one of about 3,000 for-profit colleges in the country. The college denies claims made in the lawsuit and has filed a defamation suit against the law firm. The defamation suit is pending. This summer, the multibillion-dollar for-profit college industry has come under the scrutiny of the U.S. Senate. Some government officials say the industry is regulated too loosely. Senate hearings in August revealed government findings that 15 for-profit schools, including Westwood, were encouraging fraudulent practices among students. For example, some schools were caught suggesting that prospective students hide their savings to secure more federal aid.
Across the country, other for-profit schools are facing their own legal battles. In June, a Chicago law firm filed a lawsuit on behalf of students at Illinois School of Health Careers claiming the school engaged in deceptive trade practices. Students say the college failed to inform them that the school’s nursing program was not approved by the Illinois Department of Public Health. CNN called the school several times but did not get a response. The school is trying to get the court to dismiss the suit.
“We think they’re innovative and have done some good things, but in some of these programs, students have high debt loads,” said James Kvaal, deputy undersecretary at the Department of Education. “We are also hearing anecdotes of graduates unable to get jobs in the fields they were trained.”