Another topic here talks about addresing the cause of student loan problems. One problem that I have experienced but have not seen mentioned is the lack of avenues for individuals attending nonprofit postsecondary programs, particularly colleges and universities, to have any remedies for false advertising by these institutions. The main problem is a lack of government oversight.

Because many nonprofits are religious, the governmment has traditionally kept out of their affairs. Nonprofit schools can be religious or non-religious. Non-religious programs are likewise exempted from government oversight of their advertising which would normally be done by the Federal Trade Commission. Accomodation is made for this by the US Dept of Education who makes sure programs are overseen by accreditors who should be ensuring that they operate well. Unfortunately, the reality is that since the US Dept of Education started the laissez faire policy of allowing illegitimate subjects (i.e. astrology, chiropractic) to receive federal student aid its approch to regulation has been completely hands off (laissez faire) and these programs are running amoke with false and misleading advertising.

These program depend on false advertising for their survival. They are so blatant about it that despite public exposure they continue the practices. For example, in 2003 two chiropractic educators published an article in the Journal of Chiropractic Education showing that most chiropractic programs were using making questionable claims exaggerating the usefulness of chiropractic care. One year later, Barrett re-surveyed the programs and found that 83% of programs were still using false and misleading statements. (http://www.chirobase.org/03Edu/webclaims.html)

What Needs To Be Done?

Clearly many non-profit universities are using lack of oversight to engage in deceptive business practices. New law needs to be written ending this practice and mandating that the Federal Trade Commission start regulating all non-profit postsecondary programs to ensure that the information they send prospective students is accurate. A new requirement for financial aid eligibility should compliance with the FTC in this respect and FTC should actively seek out complaints from students. Putting this policy into effect would effectively end these practices and shut many of the offenders down due to lowered student enrollments.

What needs to be done is to lobby congress to enact this legislation.