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Thursday March 28, 2024

Obama lambasted diploma mills in April 2012

LAHORE: While lambasting diploma mills in April 2012, the incumbent US President Barack Obama had signed an executive order to protect the American service members from deceptive targeting by the mushrooming diploma mills.According to the April 27, 2012, reports of reputed US media houses like the ‘USA Today’ and the

By Sabir Shah
May 28, 2015
LAHORE: While lambasting diploma mills in April 2012, the incumbent US President Barack Obama had signed an executive order to protect the American service members from deceptive targeting by the mushrooming diploma mills.
According to the April 27, 2012, reports of reputed US media houses like the ‘USA Today’ and the ‘NBC’, Obama had signed a wide-ranging order that partially addressed the growing complaints about fraudulent marketing and recruiting practices aimed at targeting the country’s military families eligible for federal education loans.
After speaking to troops at Fort Stewart Army Post in the state of Georgia, President Obama had said: “They don’t care about you; they care about your cash.”He had opined that the fraudulent online universities were “less interested in helping our men and women in uniform get ahead and more interested in making a buck.”
“That’s appalling; that’s disgraceful,” Obama said. “They’re trying to swindle and hoodwink you.”It is pertinent to note that a bill approved by the US Congress in 2008 provides expanded tuition and other education benefits for veterans and service members who were on active-duty status for at least 90 days after September 10, 2001.
Between 2009 and June 2014, according to the ‘USA Today’, an amount to the tune of $30 billion had gone toward higher education for US Army veterans, troops and family members.Accompanied by First Lady Michelle, the 44th US Head of State had asserted: “They bombard potential students with emails and pressure them into making a quick decision. Some of them steer recruits towards high-interest loans and mislead them about credit transfers and job placement programmes. One of the worst examples was a college recruiter who visited marine barracks and enrolled marines with brain injuries so severe that some of them couldn’t recall what courses the recruiter had signed them up for.
“We’re making sure veterans and service members get a simple fact sheet called ‘Know before you owe’ that lays out all the information they need about financial aid and paying for college. We’re requiring schools to offer counselling to help students finish their degree even if they have to move or deploy. And we’re stepping up our efforts to fight dishonest recruiters by strengthening rules about who can come on base and making it easier to file complaints.”