Vets group sounds the alarm after VA greenlights controversial Ashford University for GI Bill funds

WASHINGTON — The Department of Veterans Affairs agreed to preserve Ashford University’s eligibility to receive GI Bill benefits after years of whistleblowers, veterans, and state officials sounding the alarm over the school’s alleged predatory habits aimed at veterans.

Ashford, which is based in San Diego, is a primarily online university that has a long history of battling to hold on to its access to tens of millions of dollars in GI Bill funds — a key source of revenue for the school. Veterans Education Success, an advocacy group primarily for student veterans, said the VA is violating the law for approving federal benefits to be used at a school that “engaged in deceptive advertising or recruiting.”

"It is outrageous that VA continues to violate federal law in order to help for-profit colleges while throwing veterans under the bus," Carrie Wofford, president of Veterans Education Success, said in a prepared statement. "Veterans have legal rights to be protected from fraud and VA has a legal obligation to stop funding that fraud — but VA keeps refusing to follow the law."

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