Obama: For-profit colleges "swindle" veterans

President Barack Obama speaks to troops, veterans and military families at the Third Infantry Division Headquarters, Friday, April 27, 2012, at Fort Stewart, Ga. / AP

(AP) FORT STEWART, Ga. - President Barack Obama reached out to a generation of young soldiers Friday as he added new protections for veterans and military families misled or bilked by career colleges and technical programs that target their federal education benefits. "They don't care about you," he said, "they care about your cash."

Obama signed a broad order that partially addresses growing complaints about fraudulent marketing and recruiting practices aimed at military families eligible for federal education aid under the GI Bill.

Sounding outraged, Obama said some of these schools go after military men and women "just for the money."

"That's appalling, that's disgraceful," Obama said. "They're trying to swindle and hoodwink you."

In remarks that echoed some of his election-year rhetoric, Obama said he made troops and veterans a promise that America would fight for them just as they fought for their country. He addressed what he called the "9/11 generation," both in the military and out, as he listed accomplishments of his first term.

First, the president and first lady Michelle Obama paid tribute to fallen soldiers, walking slowly hand in hand along the Fort Stewart Warriors Walk, a wide path lined with 441 memorial trees. At the base of each tree sits a granite marker with a soldier's name.

Though there is little the federal government can do to shut down diploma mills, the new protections would make it harder for postsecondary and technical schools to misrepresent themselves to military students.

The main target of the White House action is for-profit colleges and universities that market heavily to military families because of the easy availability of federal money under the GI Bill.

[FormerMonroeStudent]

this place was 1 of the wrst dezisions of my 21 yearz a life. I'm flat on my butt, cause I owe so much n loans and nobody will hire me for a job now. I can't transfer any of them so called classes I took at munro cause nobody will take em. When I came to play bazeball der dey sayd i kud go ne ware after dat. ALL LIEZ. I WANT MY MONEY BACK AND DEY SHUD PAY MY LOANS. IT'S CRIMINAL WHAT DEY BE DOIN 2 EVREY1.

[garlanddegreeff]

Most students entering Monroe College in the Bronx were asleep during
high school, are Hispanics, for whom English is a Second Language, or are just out of the military. The professors assign them one-page "essays" at first and then 7-page research papers that require only three sources. I was fired from the Writing Resource Center (tutoring center) to which professors desperately send their students, hoping they can instantly become literate, when most of whom can't compose a sentence, let alone a cohesive research paper of 7 pages. The attitudes of some Monroe students are serious. But most just chatted in the classroom and clearly didn't care and were there only because of FAFSA money, which Monroe loved to take. The school is richly decorated and seems first-rate because of all of that money. Most students come to learn one thing: culinary arts or about certain jobs within the U.S. prisons system. Monroe should be a "vocational tech" school, but then students would not qualify for FAFSA money and the privately owned "college" could not charge $5,200 per semester versus $3,000 for CUNY. The Monroe "professors" are gone so much we tutors had to cover for them and teach psychology at a moment's notice, or analyze poetry as we walked in at 9 am.Most professors, if gone, merely asked us to watch over the students, who were busy watching a movie or using FaceBook on their computers. This would never happen in a real college. The Center's director mimicks some students' street-talk and laughs at their "placement essays" behind their backs. My best guess is that I had not "covered" one class correctly or had said some "hot-button" words like "should I have kicked those movie-watching students out of the class," which is a no-no, because Monroe needs the FAFSA money each student brings.

[willsimple]

I know exactly what you mean. I made a big mistake by attending MONROE.
I am an I.T. major and most of the courses offered are theory or outdated technology. During any English related courses we watched movies or debated about the current president. Unfortunately I am stuck I am 75 credits into my degree. I should have transferred. If any one

[jonnyooh]

I will go along with this, and add that if America's evangelical and moron populations give us another George Bush, in the name of Mitt Romney, It will be even more difficult for the next Democrat to scrub up after him and get his everlasting stench out of the oval office. These "working class Republicans", AKA Foxbots, are backed by the crooked rich, who send them through the Rupert Murdoch brainwashing machine and program them to vote for flunky candidates owned by the power elite, (crooked rich). These wealthy scumbags need these millions of Foxbots, because they don't have the numbers among themselves to vote in their preferred candidates.

[retm-w]

indefrence

And the republicans have done nothing since they have taken over the house except try to eliminate Social Security, Medicare, education,EPA, OSHA, and haven't done anything to create one job.

[wfw3536]

I just can't believe how Obama isn't specific and throws private colleges and universities under the bus. The vast majority of private colleges and universities are upstanding and provde many folks with an alternative to public supported schools.

[1988JAck]

He is so right. but then big businesses all over are swindling the American public.

[John782011]

Some are worse than most

[Chris0369]

Don't attend Ashford!!!

[retm-w]

Show me any business that doesn't swindle the government.