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.
College Owner Returns to Board of Accreditor That Placed Her School on Warning
A for-profit college owner whose schools were in direct violation of the rules of their accreditor, ACCSC, has returned to a seat on the board of that accreditor after only a brief absence. Carol Palacios, executive director of Miami’s Atlantis University, was serving as chair of the commission at ACCSC around the time that board
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U of Idaho President Seems To Temper His Cheerleading for U of Phoenix Purchase
In testimony Monday before a joint committee of the Idaho legislature, University of Idaho president C. Scott Green seemed a little less committed to the deal he has relentlessly touted for more than a year and a half — for his school to buy, for $685 million, the huge for-profit University of Phoenix from private
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Feds Cancel Debts for 261,000 Students of Disgraced School Now Run by U. of Arizona
The Biden Department of Education announced today it has approved $4.5 billion in loan debt cancellation for 261,000 borrowers who attended for-profit Ashford University between March 2009 and April 2020. It also announced it would seek to ban Andrew Clark, the CEO of Ashford’s demised parent company, Zovio, from contracting with the federal government. The
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Education Department Cancels Debts for Students Who Attended Disgraced CEHE Schools
At the start of President Biden’s last week in office, U.S. Department of Education Miguel Cardona this morning announced a new student debt relief package that includes automatic debt cancellation for 73,600 borrowers who attended any school owned by the Utah-based Center for Excellence in Higher Education between 2006 and the school chain’s collapse in
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Owners of Shuttered For-Profit Hussian College Sue ex-CEO, Charging Embezzlement
The owners of shuttered for-profit Hussian College have sued the school’s former president and CEO, Jeremiah Staropoli, seeking $162 million in damages and penalties and claiming that Staropoli and close associates in the company embezzled funds and then conspired to cover up the alleged misdeeds. On September 5, father-and-son Hussian owners David and Joshua Figuli
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Idaho High Court Rejects Secret Meetings on U of Phoenix Deal
The Idaho Supreme Court today ruled, in a 4-1 decision, that a lower court erred when it ratified the University of Idaho’s sneaky concealment of its deal to buy the predatory for-profit University of Phoenix. The ruling is one more indicator that this deal is a mistake, and Idahoans should reject it. Here’s more, from
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Trump Wants Musk to Cut Waste, Fraud, and Abuse. Start With Taxpayer-Funded Scam Colleges.
I spoke today at a Capitol Hill press event organized by the Debt Collective. Other speakers, who included senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Ed Markey (D-MA), Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA), and Ashley Pizzuti and Valerie Scott, two of the student borrowers who organized the event, properly focused on the urgency of the Biden administration cancelling
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FTC and California AG Have Been Investigating Online College Provider 2U
Struggling online program management operation 2U has this year been under investigation by both the Federal Trade Commission and California’s attorney general, filings in federal bankruptcy court reveal. Maryland-based 2U, which has faced scrutiny and lawsuits over alleged deceptive practices and has struggled with heavy debt, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in federal court in
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