President Donald Trump tapped a former official from a for-profit college Tuesday to lead the Department of Education’s Student Aid Enforcement Unit.
Trump appointed Julian Schmoke, a former associate program dean at DeVry, to lead the enforcement unit, according to The Hill. The Department of Education created the enforcement unit in 2016 “to respond more quickly and efficiently to allegations of illegal actions by higher education institutions.”
“When Americans invest their time, money and effort to gain new skills, they have a right to expect they’ll actually get an education that leads to a better life for them and their families,” former Secretary of Education John B. King Jr. said, announcing the creation of the unit. “When that doesn’t happen we all pay the price. So let me be clear: schools looking to cheat students and taxpayers will be held accountable.”
Schmoke spent the past five years at West Georgia Technical College, where he served as executive director for campus operations, overseeing facility maintenance, managing employees, and maintaining the school’s budget.
DeVry, the for-profit institution at which Schmoke served as assistant program dean, a department chair, and visiting professor from 2008-2012, settled a lawsuit with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 2016 regarding allegations that the for-profit college used fraudulent advertisements. The FTC disputed DeVry’s claims that 90 percent of the school’s graduates had jobs matching their degree within six months of graduation and that DeVry graduates received 15 percent more compensation than the average college graduate.
The Daily Caller News Foundation reached out to the Education Department for comment, but received none in time for publication.
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