From <a href="http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/sdut-bridgepoint-college-ceo-pay-compensation-2013jun08-story.html">San Diego Union-Tribune

Andrew Clark in the Union-Tribune predicting a good year for Bridgepoint

In 2011, now-retired United States Senator Tom Harkin called San Diego’s controversial for-profit Bridgepoint Education “an absolute scam.” This month, two senators have whacked the company’s major operation, Ashford University, with similar — but more polite — biting criticism, to wit: Ashford is guilty of “predatory practices,” the senators said in a March 15 letter to the company’s chief executive, Andrew Clark.

Clark and military friends. Thomas Hansbarger, Clark, Brigadier General Henry Huntley, executive director of San Diego Army Advisory Council Jim Bernet

From <a href="http://bridgepoint.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&amp;item=385">Bridgepoint Media Room</a>

Bridgeport “made the decision that its profits are more important than student veterans — whose educations and lives you threaten to disrupt by enrolling them without certainty of continuing eligibility,” wrote the senators.

"We have long been concerned with Ashford’s mistreatment of its students, including veterans, as documented by numerous state and federal investigations, lawsuits, and settlements. The company’s latest stunt is just another example of putting profits ahead of students,” said the solons.

The issue involves Ashford’s long-running dispute with the Veterans Administration over the use of GI Bill benefits for veterans, who constitute 25.8 percent of Bridgepoint's student body. Andrew Clark, chief executive of Bridgepoint, answered the senators on March 23.

In the letter, Clark explained how Iowa in 2016 removed Ashford’s ability to take veterans under the G.I. Bill. Bridgeport then made an end run and got the OK of Arizona to use the GI Bill. But, as Clark complained in his letter, “For more than two years, the [Veterans Administration] has injected itself into state approving decisions related to Ashford in Iowa and Arizona.” The Veterans Administration stated that Arizona had not “provided sufficient evidence to establish that it has jurisdictional authority over Ashford’s online programs,” according to Bridgepoint’s annual report to the Securities and Exchange Commission, which was filed February 21. Late last year, Ashford took the Veterans Administration to the United States Court of Appeals.

In that report to the SEC, Bridgeport stated, “If government tuition assistance offered to military personnel is suspended or otherwise reduced or eliminated, enrollment by military personnel, including veterans, may decline, which could have a material adverse effect on our revenues, financial condition, cash flows, and results of operations.” (Italics mine.)

Subsequently, “The [Veterans Administration] agreed to stay the efforts to suspend the GI Bill eligibility for Ashford students until the Federal Circuit could reach a final decision,” wrote Clark to the senators. The stay was conditioned on Ashford’s agreement to submit an application to California, the company’s home base. Bridgepoint did that in February, but California had charged Bridgepoint last year with several counts of fraud — a point that the senators wryly noted. California refused to act on Bridgepoint’s appeal and kicked the matter back to the Veterans Administration.

Ashford had temporarily suspended taking GI Bill students last fall, but in February, on the basis of the court stay, it began taking them again. Bridgepoint acknowledged that the inability to take GI Bill students in its fourth quarter had hurt its performance. Durbin and Hassan are — properly, in my judgment — protesting that the company is taking GI Bill students again until the court case and the Veterans Administration dispute are ironed out. Bridgepoint’s end run to Arizona appears to be in peril. That’s why the senators vehemently complain that the veterans are being enrolled “without certainty of continuing eligibility.” Ashford should halt the practice until the [Veterans Administration] matter is resolved, they say.