Former ATI students in Texas have some great stories about the measures that were taken when the school was threatened with loss of ACCSC accreditation:
"ATI has agreed to pay $3.7 million, while acknowledging no wrongdoing." We did nothing wrong. We did nothing wrong! But, what the heck, here's $3.7 million anyway. "The suit alleged ATI recruited its students from...strip clubs." Our valedictorian this year is Miss Fifi LaFleur..."
"Yes, your degree comes with a free lap dance and a visit to or VIP room. Of curse "nothing" happens in our VIP room." "Cinnamon is our new financial aid director."
Before this decays into open slut shaming, those ladies may not have a job you'd want your daughter to have, but at least they do have jobs, and many of them make good enough money at night to take advantage of school during the day. When I was at Keiser, one of the deans suggested the admissions team reach out to exotic dancers for exactly those reasons, and he wasn't kidding.
The ATI debacle obviously affects students, but some big investors and lenders are getting seriously burned as well. So the story isn't just of interest to the education community; it's also getting coverage in the financial press. Forbes magazine has coined the phrase "for-loss education" to describe the situation:
It's not a good sign when a conservative business magazine like Forbes (motto: "The Capitalist Tool") is prepared to suggest that an industry may be "long overdue" for increased government oversight.