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We have now been reporting for years on the gradual decline of a credentials-producing entity that allowed marginal faculties to enroll overseas college students who had been, for probably the most half, in search of jobs within the U.S., not an schooling. These faculties not solely expanded needlessly the variety of overseas employees within the nation, however the variety of backed ones within the controversial Non-compulsory Sensible Coaching program as nicely.
The entity we bear in mind is the D.C.-based Accrediting Council for Impartial Faculties and Faculties (ACICS), based in 1912. At this time’s query is: What occurred to the salaries of the 2 prime officers of that place as ACICS’ earnings (largely membership dues) fell from greater than $12 million a yr in FY 2016 to a little bit greater than one million in FY 2022?
Being an IRS-recognized 501(c)(3) charity, ACICS has to file an in depth monetary report, the IRS Kind 990, annually, and it lists, amongst different issues, the annual salaries of the highest two executives, the captain and the primary mate on this slowly sinking ship. The 990s for ACICS will be seen right here.
The ship is sinking as a result of the Obama administration tried to place the group out of enterprise of offering wanted credentials to marginal faculties; the Trump administration rescued it for some time, after which the Biden administration killed it. (Solely accredited faculties can subject the Kind I-20, required for aliens searching for a overseas pupil visa.)
Among the many many colleges as soon as credentialed by ACICS, and now out of enterprise, are: Stratford College and the American School of Commerce and Expertise, each in Falls Church, Va., and three others within the San Francisco Bay space: Herguan College, Silicon Valley College, and Tri-Valley College.
ACICS introduced in September that it’s going to not enchantment the choice of the Division of Training and can dissolve by March 2024.
The determine that follows exhibits the exceptional fall in earnings over these years, as establishments as soon as accredited by ACICS both went out of enterprise or discovered different accrediting companies acceptable to DoE. It additionally exhibits the practically regular incomes of the 2 prime officers of the slowly dying entity who’ve been in recent times the CEO and President, Michelle Edwards, and Roxanne Ropko, director of operations.
Govt Compensation Stays Almost Regular as ACICS’s Revenue Collapses |
Supply: CIS calculations from IRS varieties 990 filed by ACICS. |
Their most up-to-date compensations, in response to the newest Kind 990 filed nearly a yr in the past, had been:
- Edwards: $309,670
- Ropko: $200,390
These two saved practically regular salaries by dipping into the reserves that ACICS had constructed up over a century. These reserves dropped from $15.7 million in FY 2016 to $5.8 million within the 2022 report. The chances are there nonetheless might be greater than one million left when the outfit goes out of enterprise except the company management does one thing uncommon.
A 501(c)(3) company dissolving is meant to show over its remaining property to different 501(c)(3) companies. What is going to occur on this case?
There are, at most two dozen faculties nonetheless utilizing the ACICS accreditation at this writing; they’ve between now at March 1 to discover a new accreditor. Certainly one of these is Fairfax College of America (previously Virginia Worldwide College), as soon as an establishment with greater than 1,000 college students, largely overseas, and now diminished to solely 17 college students. For extra on this dying establishment, now apparently run by the Muslim Brotherhood, see right here.
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