New allegations of racist practices at for profit colleges emerge
On Wednesday April 11 2012 Courthouse news reported Joseph Simpson, a former dean at for profit school Anthem Career College, filed a lawsuit in Federal Court alleging Anthem fired him for protesting racist hiring practices and the cheating of workers out of overtime pay.
According to Courthouse news the complaint stated “Ms. Nash [the school president] was only offering full time employment opportunities to white candidates and not to African-American candidates. Ms. Nash also repeatedly blocked plaintiff’s attempts to hire a fully qualified African-American registrar while pushing forward white candidates who were less qualified.” http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/04/11/45510.htm
The complaint is remarkably similar to a lawsuit filed against Kaplan University by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. According to an EEOC press release from December 2010:
Kaplan Higher Education Corporation, a nationwide provider of post secondary education, engaged in a pattern or practice of unlawful discrimination by refusing to hire a class of black job applicants nationwide, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit it announced today.
Since at least 2008, Kaplan Higher Education has rejected job applicants based on their credit history. This practice has an unlawful discriminatory impact because of race and is neither job-related nor justified by business necessity, the EEOC charged in its lawsuit.
As a result of these practices, the company has violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, according to the lawsuit (Civil Action No. 1:10-cv-02882) filed by the EEOC’s Cleveland Field Office in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. It is a violation of Title VII to use hiring practices that have a discriminatory impact because of race and that are not job-related and justified by business necessity.
From student recruitment to hiring practices, the premise of for profit colleges is racially exploitative and discriminatory.
For profit colleges deliberately target and recruit low income minorities (mostly women), segregating them in a seperate and unequal system of virtual colleges with tuition that is 2-5 times the cost of public colleges, saddling them with tens of thousands of dollars of debt which is not dischargeable in bankruptcy court.
Washington Post Company owned Kaplan University is one of the most notorious offenders, as demonstrated by the EEOC lawsuit. In a shareholder lawsuit Kaplan admitted:
Plaintiff alleges that KHE’s supposedly “secret business model” depended upon the recruitment of “low-income and minority” students who were dependent upon federal loans and grants. But that was not a secret.
Furthermore Kaplan’s tuition policies are racially exploitative; for a bachelor’s degree,on line Kaplan University charges: $30,00 for active duty military, $41,000 for veterans, $50,000 for international students, and $68,000 for low income minority students dependent upon Title IV government aid.
http://dailycensored.com/2012/01/28/for-profit-colleges-separate-but-not-equal-and-the-new-jim-crow/
To make matters even worse, Washington Post CEO Donald Graham has also admitted raising tuition on Kaplan’s low income minority students every time the government increases loan limits, in an effort to dishonestly maintain compliance with a government regulation known as the 90/10 rule.
From student recruiting to staff hiring, for profit colleges represent racist practices by publicly traded companies and private equity firms, with 90% of revenues provided by the Federal Government.
As evidenced by the law suit against Anthem career College, Kaplan University is by no means alone in these practices. This writer has chosen to focus on Kaplan for two reasons. First it has allowed in depth investigative reporting not performed anywhere else. Second as the owner of Kaplan University, the Washington Post continues to violate the public trust as one of America’s most prominent newspapers.
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