WASHINGTON — The Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S. is saluting President Obama for signing an Executive Order today to better protect the military and veterans’ communities from the predatory recruiting and financial loan practices of some colleges who fail to deliver on their educational promises.
The VFW-supported Post-9/11 GI Bill became law in June 2008, but since then there have been reports of aggressive and deceptive targeting of service members, veterans, and their families by educational institutions, particularly for-profit career colleges, according to the White House. Some institutions, for example, recruit veterans with serious brain injuries and emotional vulnerabilities without providing academic support and counseling; they encourage service members, veterans and their families to take out costly institutional loans instead of first recommending less expensive federal student aid; and they engage in misleading recruiting practices on military installations, and do not disclose the institution’s graduation rate.
“The VFW is big on education, but we are even bigger on the proper administration and oversight of a new GI Bill we fought for 10 years to get enacted,” said Richard L. DeNoyer, national commander of the 2 million-member VFW and its Auxiliaries.
“The VFW has worked very hard to get these protections created, and the president’s Executive Order will go far to crack down on the predatory recruiting practices and poor performance of all schools who participate in the Post-9/11 GI Bill, but our fight isn’t over,” he said.
“Our veterans are America’s future leaders, and what they expect is a solid education that is marketable and relevant to today’s environment. The VFW looks to the Departments of Veterans Affairs, Defense and Education to quickly implement the requirements of the Executive Order.”
Read more at http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/04/26/we-can-t-wait-president-obama-takes-action-stop-deceptive-and-misleading.