SASC Chairman John McCain Releases Oversight Report on DOD Actions Against The University of Phoenix

U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, released a new oversight report today on the Department of Defense's (DOD) unfair treatment of the University of Phoenix, and its impact on the active duty military students it serves. The report follows a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on this issue last month.

The report examines DOD's decision to place the University of Phoenix on probation regarding its participation in the Voluntary Education Tuition Assistance Program, an important benefit that helps active duty service members pursue degrees in higher education. In making the decision, DOD cited allegations that the University had improperly used military trademarks on its challenge coins and obtained unauthorized access to military bases for commercial patriotic events. The decision not only prevented future service members from receiving tuition assistance to help pay for classes at the University of Phoenix, but also tarnished the University's reputation and solvency.

The report shows that DOD's decision was based on specious reasoning. By the time DOD made its decision, the University had already remedied its use of challenge coins and obtained the approval it needed from base commanders to access military installations.

The report concludes that DOD's decision was made as a result of a lack of clear lines of authority, supervision, and accountability associated with how DOD reviews allegations of wrongdoing in the tuition assistance program. The decision was also the result of insufficient internal DOD processes to ensure educational institutions alleged to have engaged in wrongdoing are notified in a timely manner and given an opportunity to be heard. This allowed a mid-level DOD bureaucrat to be improperly influenced by an unaccountable interagency task force and at least one Member of Congress committed to eliminating for-profit colleges to play an outsized role in taking this adverse action against a private educational institution.

"DOD's unfair treatment of the University of Phoenix and its active duty military students was a gross abuse of power. It serves as a powerful case study of the Obama Administration's ideologically driven effort to eliminate for-profit educational institutions," said Chairman McCain. "Undoing the Obama Administration's eight-year war on for-profit colleges through onerous rulemaking and regulatory actions should be a priority of the next Administration and Congress."

The full report is here.

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