McCain, Flake urge review of U of Phoenix military base ban

Arizona’s U.S. senators are pressuring the Pentagon to reconsider its decision to temporarily ban the University of Phoenix from recruiting on military bases and suggesting the move is based on politics or bias against for-profit education.

In a four-page letter last week, John McCain and Jeff Flake told Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter it was “unfair” to cut off the Phoenix-based school from the Tuition Assistance Program and had 10 questions for him about the process that led to the move.

The letter, which also featured fellow Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, questions the basis for the Oct. 7 decision by Dawn Bilodeau, the chief of voluntary education for the Department of Defense, who acknowledged the school had taken steps to correct some of the items she found out of line.

“We are concerned that the (Pentagon’s) decision is unfair, requires additional review, and may warrant reconsideration,” the letter said. “We strongly believe that these earned benefits and educational opportunities for our servicemembers should not be jeopardized because of political or ideological opinions of some Members of Congress regarding the types of institutions that provide postsecondary education to our troops.”

A spokeswoman for the department could not be reached for comment Monday afternoon. The ban relates to the Tuition Assistance Program, a relatively small source of revenue for the university's parent Apollo Education Group. That program is one of several types of funds for education available to members of the military.

The Pentagon’s ban cited concerns about the university’s unauthorized use of “challenge coins” bearing military logos, as well as ongoing investigations opened this summer by the Federal Trade Commission and California’s Attorney General’s Office. The university also had failed to get appropriate permission for on-base activities, the department said.

Apollo noted after the ban that it stopped using the challenge coins when the defense agency approached it about the matter and would seek appropriate permission for future events.​ Tim Slottow, the president of the university, pledged cooperation with the Pentagon and disappointment that it tied its actions to the other probes.

The GOP senators echoed some of the concerns raised by Apollo. Namely, the university was effectively being punished for the recently opened investigations, which don’t include any findings of significant wrongdoing, at least for now.

The ban came as the university and Apollo have been struggling to stem plunging enrollment. Last week the company reported it lost $19 million during the past three months of operations and expects further student and revenue declines over the next year.

The for-profit education industry has struggled for years under closer oversight from Senate Democrats and the Department of Education under President Barack Obama.

Last week’s letter included a series of questions for Carter, such as what specifically served as the basis for putting the university on probation, who else was involved in the decision, who in Congress weighed in on the issue with the Pentagon and what other schools have received similar sanctions.

The letter also suggested some non-profit schools, including Southern Illinois University, had similarly used challenge coins without punishment. The University of Phoenix took corrective action after the agency complained, as Bilodeau has acknowledged.

The letter would seem a rhetorical broadside at Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., and the ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s defense subcommittee. In a statement earlier this month, Durbin strongly supported the ban and ripped the university as being consistently substandard. A spokeswoman for Durbin could not be reached.

“This is a decisive action by the Department of Defense to protect servicemembers and taxpayers from a company that offers degrees of questionable value,” Durbin said. “With below-average graduation rates and a student loan default rate almost forty percent higher than the national average, the University of Phoenix is going to have a hard time explaining why students should continue to enroll in this institution.”

The letter comes from Apollo’s home-state senators, but McCain also chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Alexander chairs the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. That committee had been a leading source of grief for Apollo when it was chaired by former Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa.