Alta Colleges Sued by State for Law-Enforcement Job Promises
Alta Colleges Inc., operator of the for-profit Westwood colleges, misleads prospective students that its criminal-justice degree program qualifies them for law enforcement jobs, said Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan.
Madigan is suing Denver-based Alta for alleged violations of the state’s Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act. She seeks $50,000 fines for each violation, an order forcing the suspension or forfeiture of Westwood’s criminal- justice program, and tuition refunds.
“Everybody here thought they were getting a valuable degree,” Madigan told reporters at a Chicago press conference today, flanked by students who claimed they completed the Westwood program then learned prospective employers wouldn’t recognize their diplomas. “Turns out all they were getting was a useless degree.”
Degrees issued by Alta’s four Chicago-area campuses are unrecognized by Illinois State Police, the Chicago Police Department and many suburban departments, Madigan said.
‘Exorbitant Costs’
“Westwood officials lied to potential students about almost every aspect of its criminal-justice program, from its exorbitant costs to a graduate’s slim career prospects,” Madigan said in a separately issued statement.
Alta said it’s cooperating with Madigan’s office to resolve issues.
“We are proud of our legacy of helping students obtain their educational goals. We have hundreds of successful graduates working in the private and public criminal justice field throughout the state of Illinois,” the company said in a statement.
The 65-page complaint filed today at a state courthouse in Chicago identifies four Westwood College locations in and around the city as well as an online program. Madigan said students routinely incurred $60,000 to $70,000 in student loan debt to finance their studies.
Nationwide, about 1.8 million students are enrolled in for- profit college degree programs and about 96 percent of those students borrow money to do so, the attorney general said.
Jessica Pierce, 29, now of Hobart, Indiana, was one of those students standing with Madigan today. She told reporters she owes $54,000 for her Westwood degree with which she had hoped to join the Chicago Police Department.
“I was the first from my family to go to college,” she said. While a school official had assured her Westwood was “fully accredited,” she said she later learned that was untrue and that the credits accrued there weren’t transferable.
“It was really not a very good school to attend,” Pierce said.
The case is Illinois v. Alta Colleges Inc., 12CH01587, Cook County, Illinois, Circuit Court, Chancery Division (Chicago).
To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Harris in Chicago at aharris16@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net.
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