Noteboom The Law Firm

VA Pulls GI Money For Deceptive Practices

March 23, 2011 - Ever since veterans have started using the Post-9/11 GI Bill colleges have been trying to get them to attend their school. Some colleges go so far as to deceive veterans in order to have them enroll in their college to get money from the GI Bill. Finally the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has spoken as to how they plan on dealing with these deceptive practices: they have pulled all GI Bill-related funding from Westwood College's Texas campuses in Houston, Dallas, and Fort Worth.

Westwood College is a for-profit college with multiple campuses. Suspending tuition will affect approximately 90 veteran-students across the state. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report concluding 14 other for-profit colleges aside from Westwood made statements considered problematic.

Those statements centered around:

• Graduation Rates;
• Supplying ambiguous information as to costs and tuition; and
• Overstating applicant's potential future earnings.

The Post-9/11 GI Bill sends the money directly to the veteran-students' school, completely paying all fees and costs. This gives schools an incentive to enroll as many veterans as possible; there is a lot of money to be made. Unfortunately, it is being discovered in order to get those veterans into their schools, many are deceiving veteran-students about their rates of graduation and employment prospects to get them in the door.

The VA has been asked to take a more aggressive approach toward denying such schools GI Bill payments. Following the VA pulling their funding from the Westwood Texas campuses, 60 of the 90 veteran-students enrolled have transferred to other schools.