Jackson Free Press

Shirley Washington and Tiffeny Anderson had been kicking around the idea of going back to school when they came across advertisements for Virginia College. Actually, Washington stresses, the college ran "constant ads" on daytime television.

A single mom who graduated from Clinton High School, Washington was receiving public assistance at the time. She wanted to work in health-care administration for the good wages and medical benefits, but also to show her children that it's never too late in life to get more education.

"I wasn't going to let that be my crutch," Washington said of receiving government aid. She and Anderson both enrolled in Virginia College in the fall of 2009. Anderson, who is married with three children and lives in Brandon, took classes at night so she could keep her job waitressing at Cracker Barrel during the day.

Both women signed up for the medical-assistant program, they say, because admissions representatives told them that at the end of the 15-month-long program students would be certified phlebotomists and electrocardiography (EKG) technicians as well as medical assistants, fields that offered wages of between $12 and $21 per hour.

Washington, who is African American, noticed that her classes were overwhelmingly filled with black women (Anderson noticed she was one of very few white women in her program).

Despite what she was told during the admissions process, Washington said she never read an EKG from a human heart, and only drew blood twice from a person and performed only three to four "finger sticks" to draw blood.

There were other signs that something was amiss, they say: Instructors skipped over chunks of the textbooks, and they didn't use some books at all, Washington said. Nor did she know what portion of the $26,000 in federal funds she borrowed to pay for school went for books or anything else—she never saw a statement until after graduation.

After completing an externship at the Sonny Montgomery Medical Center, passing the National Healthcareers Association certification exam, and graduating with honors, Washington hasn't been able to find a job. She's applied for 30 positions at the VA Hospital and put in applications at St. Dominic, Baptist, University Medical Center and River Oaks Hospital—and has not had even one interview since finishing the Virginia College program in December 2010.

Anderson, whose experiences at the school mirror Washington's, found a job working as a geriatric nurse's aid earning $8.50 per hour but says she's disappointed because she's not doing what she trained for.

"It hurts. It feels like I've been cheated," Anderson said. "It's like you're not getting anything out of it after all that hard work, after all that money. What are you going to do with three certifications that you can't use?" Anderson, Washington and five other women cemented their grievances in a federal lawsuit filed July 18. Plaintiffs allege "the fraudulent practices of Virginia College, and its failure to adequately train, educate, and certify plaintiffs has left them deeply in debt, unable to find employment, and unable to make minimum monthly payments on their student loans." Furthermore, Virginia College's medical assistant program did not meet the minimum requirements of "its own accrediting agency"—the National Healthcareers Association.

The college's attorney, Robert L. Gibbs of the Jackson firm GibbsWhitwell, PLLC, told the Jackson Free Press July 20 that he couldn't comment on the ongoing litigation except that his client denies the allegations. He added that information on graduation, tuition and placement are available on the school's website.

Students in the college's medical assistant diploma/certificate program have a 60 percent job placement rate. The Jackson campus' rate is higher at 62.8 percent, according to Virginia College's website.

Birmingham, Ala.-based Educational Corporation of America, operates for-profit schools in 14 states, including 25 Virginia College campuses.

The company also owns a golf academy and culinary and business schools. Willis Stein & Partner, a private-equity firm headquartered in the Chicago area, owns ECA.

The lawsuit against Virginia College, which the Mississippi Center for Justice filed along with Jackson attorneys Warren L. Martin and Kenya Martin, states that Virginia College LLC collected $292,658,424 in 2011 revenues, mostly from federal student aid.

At the Jackson campus, Virginia College had $12,690,777 in revenues, 97 percent of which came from fees and tuition, also mostly from federal student aid programs.

The lawsuit only represents one side of a legal argument.

For-profit universities—sometimes called proprietary schools—have experienced huge profits and accelerated growth in recent years but, because many of the institutions are privately owned, it's difficult to get an accurate revenue picture.

The Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities estimates that of the more than 2 million students its member institutions serve, 94 percent are eligible for federal aid. Considering that the average annual cost of attending college is $17,633, and private colleges generate $31.7 billion in revenues just from federal sources.

Whitney Barkley, the Mississippi Center for Justice's lead attorney on the case, said the organization started investigating after receiving complaints from Virginia College's students about not doing enough live blood draws to be certified phlebotomists.

Barkley said that the problems the plaintiffs face in finding employment aren't just the result of the economic slowdown.

"The problem is they're not qualified for even a tough job market," Barkley said.

Washington and Anderson, the plaintiffs, say they feel disappointment more acutely because they lived up to their part of the bargain, attending class daily and studying hard. Both women graduated with honors.

Washington said even though she observed the school's failings, she didn't want to see its flaws because she was excited about the bright future she thought was ahead.

"I came in wanting to be better. My expectation was to get the education to allow me to be self-sufficient, where I did not have to remain on (public-assistance) benefits, where I could start somewhere and work my way up. That never happened. That's not because I did not apply myself, because I did," she said.

"I just wanted them to be fair, because it wasn't cheap. Now I've got this big old amount hanging over my head and I'm still jobless."

Comment at www.jfp.ms. Email R.L. Nave at [email protected].