By Kevin McCauley
Washington Post Co. has retained well-connected Democratic firm Elmendorf Strategies to protect the interests of key moneymaker Kaplan Inc., its for-profit education operation.
The General Accountability Office in August issued a critical report of for-profit schooling and the Dept. of Education is drawing up rules that will hit companies that graduate students with scant job prospects and heavy debt.
The Post Co. on Sept. 9 released a response to the DOE’s "notice of rulemaking." That statement maintains that "students at for-profit institutions graduate at a higher rate, with greater increases in salary, and at a fraction of the cost to the taxpayer than students at comparable non-profit institutions."
States such as Florida are also investigating for-profit colleges for alleged misrepresentation in areas such as recruitment, financial aid, graduation rates and job placement.
Kaplan is WPC’s largest business unit with second-quarter revenues of $638M, or 61 percent of its $1B total sales. It accounted for $109M, 67 percent of $163M overall operating income.
Steve Elmendorf, who worked a dozen years for former House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt, leads the push for Kaplan. He is assisted by Rob Cogorno, ex-floor director for now Democratic leader Steny Hoyer; Jimmy Ryan, ex-advisor to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and Stacey Alexander, former chief of staff for Utah Democrat Jim Matheson, a leader in the Blue Dog Coalition of conservative Democrats.
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