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After Trump University, Why Not Sue All Colleges?
American Thinker ^ | November 27, 2016 | Brian C. Joondeph

Posted on 11/27/2016 5:16:46 AM PST by Kaslin

Trump University was one of Donald Trump’s entrepreneurial ventures, a real estate educational program in operation from 2005 to 2010. Live events and in-field mentorships promising to teach students Donald Trump’s real estate techniques, taught by his “hand-picked” professors. A lawsuit alleged false representations, as Trump himself had no significant involvement in the educational event content or instructors. The title of “university” was also claimed to be misleading as Trump University was not accredited as such.

Donald Trump settled the lawsuit post-election for $25 million, claiming he “Did not have the time to go through a long but winning trial on Trump U. Too bad!” Would he have prevailed at trial as he asserts? Who knows? He is correct that as President-elect transitioning himself and his leadership team into the White House, the distraction of a trial and associated media spectacle is the last thing he needed.

Looking closer at the complaints against Trump University, the primary allegation is fraud. According to students and instructors, “Some of whom described the program as a scheme to cheat customers out of thousands of dollars.” Also high pressure tactics, “Tapping into the roller coaster of emotions to get students to sign up.”

Let’s compare all of this to “real universities” and colleges and other institutions of higher learning across the US. Counting both two and four year institutions, public and private, just over 4700 such institutions dot the US landscape.

Why attend college? Several reasons. Job opportunities, security in a changing economy, higher income, and family stability. Similar to the promises of Trump University?

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: highereducation; lawsuit; trumpu
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1 posted on 11/27/2016 5:16:46 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

GREAT IDEA....especially the ones who teach “Women’s studies”, etc.


2 posted on 11/27/2016 5:22:28 AM PST by Ann Archy (Abortion....... The HUMAN Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: Kaslin

EXACTLY. Disinformation specialists try to manipulate minds of youngsters.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR5ApYxkU-U

DISMANTLE Dept. of Education. DEFUND their propagandists.


3 posted on 11/27/2016 5:24:59 AM PST by PGalt
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To: Kaslin

Higher education is the biggest bubble in our economy right now. It is an absolute disgrace. A monopoly fueled by nondischargeable loans with the pricing set by institutions that are sitting on billions of dollars of investments. My late father, your average poor kid from the Bronx, attended Columbia in the 1950s at a cost of around $500 per semester. A merit scholarship covered half. He covered the other half by family contributions and working part-time. He went on to get an MBA from Wharton and finished with zero debt. Young men and women today are paying $50,000 plus per year to go to colleges that I never heard of. It is unconscionable.


4 posted on 11/27/2016 5:34:37 AM PST by Atticus
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To: Kaslin

An absolutely great idea. College is, for the most part, a bit of a scam these days. At least for the multitudes that gain degrees in useless drivel like gender studies and sociology. It’s still a worthwhile path for engineering and the medical field and a few others, but there has been a trend to replace practical learning with indoctrination and “feel-good” classes as a substitute for gaining true knowledge.


5 posted on 11/27/2016 5:43:42 AM PST by meyer (There is no political solution to this troubling evolution...)
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To: Kaslin
The idea that the name was misleading is ridiculous. Universities have degree programs. These people knew what this school was about. Good grief...there are people doing this on TV. The idea that he had to be the teacher etc or run it is ridiculous. It's all about delegating....and that's how people become a success.

And that's how his older children have ALL become successful.

Just had a course. Steve Job was to be a speaker. Turned out it was an old video that Job had made.

6 posted on 11/27/2016 5:44:23 AM PST by Sacajaweau
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To: Kaslin

I said this right away! Glad to think someone else is thinking the same thing.

Very deep pockets! For starters, Harvard has an endowment of $39BILLION!!! That’s yuge!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colleges_and_universities_in_the_United_States_by_endowment


7 posted on 11/27/2016 5:53:28 AM PST by Liberty Ship ("Lord, make me fast and accurate.")
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To: Kaslin

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Media/Slideshow/2012/05/17/11-Public-Universities-With-The-Worst-Graduation-Rates

1. Southern University at New Orleans, Louisiana
Graduation rate:
4%
Undergraduates:
2,590
Median SAT score:
715
Pell Grant recipients:
75.8%
In-State Tuition and fees:
$3,906
Acceptance rate:
48.4%

2. University of the District of Columbia, Washington D.C
Graduation rate:
7.7%
Undergraduates:
5,311
Pell Grant recipients:
44.7%
In-State Tuition and fees:
$7,000
Acceptance rate:
63.2%

I could go on, but these institutions are milking Pell Grants to get money out of unemployable kids. This article doesn’t even mention what percentage of those who do graduate actually get jobs that use their degree.


8 posted on 11/27/2016 5:59:57 AM PST by Pollster1 ("Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed")
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To: Kaslin

They should start with “Film School”, touted and advertised by Hollywood in Partnership with Cities, Counties, and States. Lot’s of BIG FISH to go after as a result of these partnerships

Only 1 out of 100 will actually get a Job in the entertainment industry, and NONE of them will get a Job they were supposedly “Trained” for in Film School that they paid $45,000 per year to Attend.

A friend of mine went through it a few years back, says it was ALL A SCAM, he now works for his Father, who by the way COSIGNED FOR THE STUDENT LOAN!!!


9 posted on 11/27/2016 6:07:13 AM PST by eyeamok (destruction of government records.)
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To: Pollster1

How about the fraud?

Pell Grant Fraud Awareness: White-Collar Crime Challenges

https://leb.fbi.gov/2014/february/pell-grant-fraud-awareness-white-collar-crime-challenges


10 posted on 11/27/2016 6:38:41 AM PST by Dacus943
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To: Atticus

Nowadays “colleges” just offer many young people four more years of high school.

Affirmative action students are ripped off the worst; slapping a college degree on students who can barely read is criminal. One of the reasons they delve into bias in job applicants’ names is because it is no secret that college degrees held by certain “preferred minorities” are absolutely worthless.


11 posted on 11/27/2016 6:46:06 AM PST by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: Kaslin

Some of these colleges have feedback forms, too.


12 posted on 11/27/2016 6:46:55 AM PST by Lisbon1940 (No full-term Governors!)
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To: Kaslin

The libs can thank themselves for the fact that their prime degrees (in advanced nothingness) are worthless.

If it ain’t STEM, it is NOT an academic degree.


13 posted on 11/27/2016 6:54:11 AM PST by Da Coyote
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To: kearnyirish2
Nowadays “colleges” just offer many young people four more years of high school.

One thing that impressed me in the "Truman" book by David McCullough was Truman could read both Latin and Greek, and he "only" had a high school education. His high school was probably typical of those of the early 20th century when a high school degree actually meant something.

14 posted on 11/27/2016 6:59:54 AM PST by Flick Lives (Les Deplorables Triumphant)
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To: Pollster1

Failed Pell Grant recipients could do class action lawsuits against the schools, cuz dey faled, no? Can’t get no jobs, so gibsme money!


15 posted on 11/27/2016 7:01:54 AM PST by polymuser (There's a big basket of deportables.)
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To: meyer

“College is, for the most part, a bit of a scam these days.”........

A” bit of a scam” you say?. My grand daughter is about to graduate from college with teaching degrees. (Note I said degrees) She is an excellent student and has three majors, two of which require that she must pay for “practice teaching” time. She argued with the University about having to take two practice teaching courses in order to graduate but did not convince the administration that by completing one course would equal for both, she still lost and is about to finish the first of the two ‘practice” teaching sessions. Indeed it is a SCAM by the university to collect more funds for the second course which she should have gotten credit for by completing the first of the two.


16 posted on 11/27/2016 7:02:11 AM PST by DaveA37
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To: Kaslin

Colleges??? At one time here in the U.S. we used to have colleges but now we only have liberal indoctrination centers. The only institutes of real learning are still housed in technical colleges...and they are in danger from the left too!


17 posted on 11/27/2016 7:16:20 AM PST by DH (Once the tainted finger of government touches anything the rot begins)
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To: Kaslin
The article makes some good points about the escalating cost and declining value of a college education, but the author swung and completely missed the ball.

Problem #1: escalating costs of college educations can be laid at the feet of the federal government. A student can borrow practically unlimited amounts of money, with no underwriting standards to determine whether the student will be able to pay it back.

Problem #2: there are many degrees offered that don't teach a skill that is marketable outside academia. The opportunities to get a position teaching the subject are extremely limited, so one ends up waiting tables or making coffee.

So, a student can go to an Ivy League school and borrow an exorbitant amount of money for an effectively worthless degree. He can't discharge the student loan in bankruptcy, so he effectively a slave to the federal government for the rest of your life.

I can't really put the fault on the universities: they are simply responding to the demand. The students make the choice of studying for an "easy" degree so they can party for most of their 4 years.

The student loan administration needs a complete overhaul, limiting loans to degrees that teach a marketable skill, and to amounts that a student can reasonably pay back in 10-15 years at the prevailing wage/salary they can be expected to earn.

This change would do more to stop college cost inflation than any other measure. And, it might even increase the supply of scientists and engineers that we need to bring R&D and manufacturing back to the US.

18 posted on 11/27/2016 7:19:32 AM PST by justlurking (#TurnOffCNN)
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To: Kaslin

That can be a job for the new Secretary of Education and the new Attorney General.


19 posted on 11/27/2016 7:29:33 AM PST by UnwashedPeasant (I told you so)
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To: Kaslin

How about Bill Clinton, who was paid something like nine million dollars to be the honorary, no show Provost of some sketchy University?

when a Clinton gets involved you can be completely sure that some type of very bad slam.


20 posted on 11/27/2016 7:33:44 AM PST by gaijin
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