Washington Post CEO, Kaplan and Predatory Accounting That Hits Poor Students Hard

In a 2010 letter to shareholders, Washington Post CEO Donald Graham admits that Kaplan University engaged in a scheme to raise tuition on poor students. The scheme was launched for the sole purpose of avoiding a violation of the Department of Education's (DOE) "90/10" rule and to assure Kaplan's profits' successful and continual reliance on subsidies from the pockets of publicly funded, federal student loan money. Most Kaplan revenues come from the federal government's Title IV program. If enough students borrow the cost of tuition, Kaplan would be in violation of the 90/10 rule.

As Graham casually noted in the letter to shareholders: " ... each time the federal government raises the maximum amount granted under Pell Grants or the maximum federal loan amount, we end up compelled to raise tuitions to comply with 90/10" (Ibid).

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