SPECIAL REPORT: Warning signs for troubled technical and Associate’s colleges

ABC-7 investigated what the value is of getting Associate’s degree, showing it can result in big earning potential quickly. So how can you make sure the choice of a trade or associates degree school is the right one?

Some students of trade schools in the Borderland have been seriously burned when their schools went belly-up. Private for-profit Anamarc College closed down suddenly earlier this year, leaving its students wondering what would happen to their education and funds spent toward it.

And Anamarc’s not alone. The Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools is national institution certifying private trade and Associate’s degree colleges. It’s website, www.acics.org, shows dozens of schools have shut down since the start of this year.

ACICS Vice President Anthony Bieda sees a pattern in failed schools.

“The common thread is that most of their revenue is derived from federal student financial aid,” Bieda said.

The Department of Education oversees federal student loans. It can prevent federal loans from going to schools if it finds problems with how that money is actually being used by schools.

“And if the institution has not socked away, or cached if you will,” Beida said, “substantial backup funds or reserve funds, then they can be confronting a situation in which in a matter of weeks or even days, they run out of cash.”

Anamarc received millions of dollars in federal student loans this year alone before it was cut off in June, pending review by the Department of Education. The sudden shut down of the trade school after that tipping point left hundreds of students in academic limbo, many without a clear path to finish their education or get any of their money back.

Blanca Harper is now a registered nurse working in home health care. She graduated from Anamarc with certifications starting as a licensed vocational nurse less than a year before the school shut down.

She said signs of financial distress were hard to spot.

“The nurses were great,” Harper said. “I just went at the right time and left at the right time, thank God.”

Harper still had friends at Anamarc when it all came tumbling down. She said many still don’t know if they’ll be able to finish the education they started or get back any of the $30,000 course cost.

“(It’s a) very sad moment,” Harper said. “Because they worked really really hard for it. Especially the ones that also worked and paid cash and worked full time and went to school full time. It was hard.”

While the signs can be hard to see from the inside, accreditors point to a couple of factors can help prospective students judge the health of an institution.

Recommended indicators include retention rates, meaning how many students who stay in a course beyond the add-drop period actually finish the course. Another is placement rates, the percentage of graduating or completing students who find jobs in the field. Anything below 70 percent for either is a red flag.

El Paso’s Western Technical College has a 40 year history of technical and now associate’s degree education.

Its placement and retention rates are both in the mid to high 70 percent school wide. And high demand programs like diesel mechanics have near 90 percent for both rates.

Owner and administrator Brad Kuykendall said that’s due to the support and industry connections Western Tech has and offers to students.

“It’s trying to assist them in turning some potential stumbling blocks into stepping stones,” Kuykendall said. “And that’s what it’s about. Whether it has to do with child care. Our main campus over on Plaza Circle has a daycare that we have, that we make available to our students. That’s something we see as very important, especially to our increasing female population.”