City Government

Partial Tuition Refunds, Scholarships Available in For-Profit College Settlement

Published

10 years ago

May 26, 2015

City Attorney Dennis Herrera has launched an outreach program to identify and compensate eligible beneficiaries of his office’s settlement agreement with the Education Management Corporation, the parent company of Art Institute of California-San Francisco.

Herrera’s unlitigated claim centered on allegations, largely informed by his office’s consumer protection investigation, that the for-profit college’s marketing tactics systematically underestimated the college’s costs to students and inflated job placement figures for graduates.

Under terms of the settlement agreement, the Art Institute agreed in June 2014 to resolve the dispute prior to litigation by paying $1.95 million to carry out the purposes of the agreement and to fully reimburse all public costs to investigate the case.

The City Attorney’s Office will also administer a reimbursement program for Art Institute of California-San Francisco students who graduated between 2009 and 2012, and who were unable to secure a job placement relating to their field of study within six months of graduation.

Eligible graduates who received bachelor’s degrees are expected to receive partial refunds of approximately $4,000 each. Eligible graduates who received associate’s degrees should receive partial refunds of approximately $2,000.

Precise amounts will depend on the total number of beneficiaries who can be located and enrolled as participants in the program before the June 30 deadline.

“For-profit colleges have come under fire for deceptive marketing, and when we found evidence of actionable practices victimizing San Franciscans, we moved aggressively to right the wrong,” Herrera said.

“Half our motivation for pursuing this case was to hold Art Institute of California-San Francisco accountable for failing to accurately inform students about their education costs and job placement prospects, and achieve a change in practices that would prevent future students from being misled,” he said.

“The other half was to secure partial refunds as a measure of justice for those graduates who relied on overly rosy cost and job placement statistics, only to find that they couldn’t find a job in their field upon graduation.”

As part of the settlement, Education Management Corporation, or EDMC, agreed to endow a $1.6 million scholarship fund for non-graduating students seeking to complete their studies, and to offer another $850,000 in general scholarships.

EDMC began offering scholarships for returning students several months ago, and is still in the process of implementing its unrestricted scholarship program. The agreement, formally an “Assurance of Voluntary Compliance” that is legally binding and enforceable, also includes key changes to Education Management Corporation’s marketing and reporting practices to avoid misleading prospective students in the future.

For potentially eligible Art Institute-SF graduates who did not receive notice letters, the City Attorney’s Office provides online access to Applications for Refund, Change of Address forms, and answers to frequently asked questions at http://sfcityattorney.org/aicasf.

For more information, call (415) 355-3268; or email at aicasf.refund@sfgov.org.

The deadline to submit an Application for Refund is Tuesday, June 30.

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Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

Published

3 days ago

May 25, 2025

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IN MEMORIAM: Nate Holden, State Senator and Longtime Los Angeles Councilmember, Dies at 95

Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn described Holden as “a lion” in the State Senate and a force to be reckoned with on the Los Angeles City Council.” Hahn added that she learned a lot working with Holden when she was a new councilmember.

Published

1 week ago

May 19, 2025

Oakland Post

Former Los Angeles Councilmember and California State Sen. Nate Holden. File photo.

By Bo Tefu, California Black Media

Former Los Angeles City Councilmember Nathaniel “Nate” Holden, a prominent figure in the city’s politics, passed away at the age of 95, his family confirmed on May 7.

Holden, who represented South Los Angeles for 16 years on the City Council and served one term in the California State Senate, was widely regarded as a forceful advocate for his community.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn described Holden as “a lion” in the State Senate and a force to be reckoned with on the Los Angeles City Council.”

Hahn added that she learned a lot working with Holden when she was a new councilmember.

Holden’s journey to political prominence began in the segregated South, where he was born in Macon, Georgia, in 1929. He often recalled the childhood moment when he first heard the governor of Georgia vowing to continue suppressing Black people.

“Doing the best you can for the people. Law and order. Make sure that people’s communities are safe. I did it all,” said Holden, reflecting on his legacy.

Holden is survived by his sons, including former California Assemblymember Chris Holden, who represented a district in Southern California that includes Pasadena and Altadena in Los Angeles County and cities in San Bernardino County.

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Oakland Hosts Town Hall Addressing Lead Hazards in City Housing

According to the city, there are 22,000 households in need of services for lead issues, most in predominantly low-income or Black and Latino neighborhoods, but only 550 to 600 homes are addressed every year. The city is hoping to use part of the multimillion-dollar settlement to increase the number of households served each year.

Published

1 week ago

May 18, 2025

Oakland Post

iStock.

By Magaly Muñoz

The City of Oakland’s Housing and Community Development Department hosted a town hall in the Fruitvale to discuss the efforts being undertaken to remove lead primarily found in housing in East and West Oakland.

In 2021, the city was awarded $14 million out of a $24 million legal settlement from a lawsuit against paint distributors for selling lead-based paint that has affected hundreds of families in Oakland and Alameda County. The funding is intended to be used for lead poisoning reduction and prevention services in paint only, not water or other sources as has been found recently in schools across the city.

The settlement can be used for developing or enhancing programs that abate lead-based paint, providing services to individuals, particularly exposed children, educating the public about hazards caused by lead paint, and covering attorney’s fees incurred in pursuing litigation.

Most of the homes affected were built prior to 1978, and 12,000 of these homes are considered to be at high risk for lead poisoning.

City councilmember Noel Gallo, who represents a few of the lead-affected Census tracts, said the majority of the poisoned kids and families are coming directly from neighborhoods like the Fruitvale.

“When you look at the [kids being admitted] at the children’s hospital, they’re coming from this community,” Gallo said at the town hall.

In order to eventually rid the highest impacted homes of lead poisoning, the city intends to create programs and activities such as lead-based paint inspections and assessments, full abatement designed to permanently eliminate lead-based paint, or partial abatement for repairs, painting, and specialized cleaning meant for temporary reduction of hazards.

In feedback for what the city could implement in their programming, residents in attendance of the event said they want more accessibility to resources, like blood testing, and information from officials about lead poisoning symptoms, hotlines for assistance, and updates on the reduction of lead in their communities.

Attendees also asked how they’d know where they are on the prioritization list and what would be done to address lead in the water found at several school sites in Oakland last year.

City staff said there will be a follow-up event to gather more community input for programming in August, with finalizations happening in the fall and a pilot launch in early 2026.