{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.warren.senate.gov/oversight/letters/warren-cummings-bonamici-colleagues-demand-answers-about-collapse-of-for-profit-college-chain-education-corporation-of-america", "Warren, Cummings, Bonamici, Colleagues Demand Answers about Collapse of For-Profit College Chain Education Corporation of America", "2018-12-27", "2018", "2018-12", "Democrat", "House", "MA", "Elizabeth Warren", "W000817", "www.warren.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "December 27, 2018\n\t\t\t Warren, Cummings, Bonamici, Colleagues Demand Answers about Collapse of For-Profit College Chain Education Corporation of America \n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t \n\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n        \n\t\t\t\t ECA's Sudden Collapse Immediately Displaces Roughly 18,000 Students, Over 4,000 on GI Bill\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t Letter to ECA (PDF)\r\n| Letter to\r\nACICS (PDF) | Letter to\r\nSecretary DeVos (PDF) Washington, DC -United States Senator Elizabeth\r\nWarren (D-Mass.), House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Elijah Cummings (D-Md.),\r\nand Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.) have opened an investigation into the sudden\r\ncollapse of the massive for-profit college chain Education Corporation of\r\nAmerican (ECA), demanding information from ECA and the Accrediting Council for\r\nIndependent Colleges and Schools (ACICS), the failed accreditor responsible for\r\ngiving ECA its stamp of approval prior to the collapse. ECA provided no\r\nwarnings to its students, and left 18,000 students in 20 states scrambling for\r\nanswers and a way to continue their education. On December 5, 2018, long-troubled ECA announced that it would immediately\r\nclose about 70 of its campuses, including the campuses of Brightwood Career\r\nInstitute, Brightwood College, Ecotech Institute, Golf Academy of America, and\r\nVirginia College. This closure immediately displaces thousands of\r\nstudents, many of whom, at ECA's direction, took out thousands of dollars in\r\nstudent loans to attend its doomed programs. According to Veterans\r\nAffairs Department data, this closure will impact nearly 4,000 student veterans\r\nwho had been using their GI Bill funds at an ECA campus. In their letter\r\nto ECA, Senator Warren, Ranking Member Cummings, and Rep. Bonamici detailed\r\nECA's long history of financial instability and demanded a full accounting of\r\nevents leading up to its collapse. The lawmakers also expressed concern\r\nabout whether ECA appropriately warned students and regulators about the\r\ncompany's precarious financial standing as it teetered on the brink of\r\ncollapse, and asked ECA a series of questions to better understand what ECA\r\nknew in advance of this collapse, and when company executives knew it. \"The educational pursuits and financial well-being of countless\r\nstudents have been disrupted and put at risk, while massive costs have been\r\nincurred by American taxpayers,\"the lawmakers wrote in their\r\nletter to ECA. *** In a separate\r\nletter sent to ACICS, the lawmakers demanded answers on the steps that\r\nACICS should have taken to protect the approximately 18,000 students affected\r\nby ECA's collapse. In particular, the lawmakers questioned why ACICS\r\ncontinued to grant accreditation to ECA schools when others would not, and why\r\nACICS did not require formal \"teach-out\" agreements in timely fashion\r\nto protect students and taxpayers when the collapse finally happened.\r\nACICS was the same organization that accredited ITT and Corinthian Colleges -\r\ntwo other huge, for-profit colleges that have failed in recent years. \"The timeline of the ECA collapse and the company's interactions with\r\nACICS are deeply troubling. ACICS's oversight shortcomings potentially\r\nenabled ECA to continue its business as usual enrolling students and receiving\r\nfederal student aid funds while ECA struggled financially,\"wrote\r\nthe lawmakers in their letter to ACICS. Senator Warren also led seven of her Senate colleagues in writing to\r\nEducation Secretary Betsy DeVos demanding the Department take immediate\r\nsteps to aid and protect students, veterans, and taxpayers in the wake of this\r\nsignificant collapse. Joining Senator Warren in sending this letter were\r\nSenators Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Richard Durbin\r\n(D-Ill.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Kamala\r\nHarris (D-Calif.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). \"The Department has an urgent responsibility to help the students it\r\nfailed to protect and to provide these students with clear, helpful, and\r\nactionable guidance regarding their options, including their eligibility for\r\nclosed school loan discharges, borrower defense claims and discharges, and\r\ntheir options for completing their education,\" the senators wrote\r\nin their letter to Secretary DeVos. Senators Warren and her colleagues asked that ECA, ACICS and the Department\r\nrespond to their letters byJanuary 21, 2019. Earlier this month, Senator Warrenand Rep. Bonamiciled eleven of\r\ntheir Senate and House colleagues inurgingEducation Secretary Betsy DeVos and officials\r\nat the Department of Education to immediately rescindthe decisionto fully reinstate federal recognition of\r\nACICS. ###\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t  \n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t \n\t\t\n\t\t\tPrint\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tEmail\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tTweet\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t \n\t\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n    \n\t\n\t\n    \n    \n    \n    \t\n    \t\n\t    \t  \n\t\t    \n\t\t    \n\t\t    \tPrevious Article", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.warren.senate.gov/oversight/letters/warren-cummings-bonamici-colleagues-demand-answers-about-collapse-of-for-profit-college-chain-education-corporation-of-america"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.7593569830060005, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}