About: David Halperin

Twitter: @DaHalperin
Bio: David Halperin, a self-employed lawyer based in Washington DC, engages in public advocacy work on a wide range of issues, including higher education and climate change. He also advises organizations and companies on strategy, policy, communications, and legal matters, and he is of counsel to Public.Resource.org. Halperin was previously: founding director of Campus Progress and senior vice president at the Center for American Progress; senior policy advisor for Howard Dean's presidential campaign; founding executive director of the American Constitution Society; White House speechwriter and special assistant for national security affairs to President Clinton; co-founder of the Internet company Progressive/RealNetworks; counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee; and law clerk to U.S. District Judge Gerhard A. Gesell. He has represented clients in the U.S. Supreme Court and various state and federal courts. He writes at Republic Report, and his articles also have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, The Nation, Politico, Slate, Foreign Policy, and other outlets. In recent years he has testified before the House Oversight Committee and at the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Transportation, and spoken at major events held by the National Consumer Law Center, Consumer Federation of America, Arizona State University, American Educational Research Association, and Center for American Progress. Halperin has served for more than a decade on the board of directors of Public Citizen. He graduated from Yale College and Yale Law School.

December 13, 2022

Facing Collapse, For-Profit ASA College Makes Troubling Moves

Faced with the increasing likelihood that it will be forced to shut down, New York-based for-profit ASA College has left students in turmoil, providing confusing messages about transfer options, refusing to refund tuition, adding new charges to student bills, and seeming to recruit and enroll new students even as it appears likely they will not
Continue Reading >>>

leave a comment
December 7, 2022

Headhunter Sends Stark Robocall Seeking College Recruiting Chief

A recorded message sent from a corporate headhunter to various people in the for-profit college industry is getting attention from some industry members, because it is apparently an unusual use of so-called robocalling. The recording also presents in stark terms the kind of mercenary activity that is taking place with taxpayer-funded higher education dollars. In
Continue Reading >>>

leave a comment
November 15, 2022

Feds Tell Accreditor SACS to Shape Up, Examine Keiser University

The U.S. Department of Education last month determined that one of the country’s major accreditors of colleges and universities is out of compliance with numerous federal regulations. It also directed the accreditor, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACS), to provide more information regarding its oversight of Florida-based Keiser University and
Continue Reading >>>

leave a comment
November 13, 2022

Why Is Perdoceo’s Chairman Selling So Much Company Stock?

Todd Nelson, the executive chairman of Perdoceo Education Corp., one of America’s largest for-profit college companies, has sold a huge volume of his shares in the company in recent weeks — even as Perdoceo has been telling investors that things are going well. Nelson has frequently been featured on this website because of his outsized
Continue Reading >>>

leave a comment
November 13, 2022

Troubled ASA College Loses Accreditation

Accreditor Middle States Commission on Higher Education has withdrawn accreditation from troubled for-profit ASA College. As a result, unless that decision is reversed on appeal, ASA will lose access to the federal student aid that has made up almost two-thirds of its revenue. In a letter dated November 11, Middle States told ASA that accreditation
Continue Reading >>>

leave a comment
October 27, 2022

Keiser U Loses Court Argument Over Robocalls

A Florida federal judge last week rejected a motion by controversial career school Keiser University to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Maria Fernanda Soto Leigue, who says she was bombarded with messages from Keiser urging her to enroll – conduct that she claims violated Florida’s statute governing robocalls.  The October 20 opinion by U.S. District
Continue Reading >>>

leave a comment
October 26, 2022

ASA College Withdraws Bid to Stay Licensed in Florida

Troubled for-profit ASA College today told a Florida oversight agency that it is not seeking renewal of licensure for its Hialeah, Florida, campus, the only campus the company operates in the state. ASA’s  president told a meeting of the Florida Commission on Independent Education (CIE) that the company plans to close the campus next spring
Continue Reading >>>

leave a comment
October 26, 2022

Education Department Restricts Cash Flow to Florida Career College

The U.S. Department of Education has placed troubled for-profit Florida Career College (FCC) on Heightened Cash Monitoring 2 (HCM2), a restrictive status under which a school must request reimbursements from the Department for student financial aid, rather than getting payments in advance. The decision was recently made public through the Department’s quarterly filing of schools
Continue Reading >>>

leave a comment