CCi's shareholders have already bailed, so their permission shouldn't be a problem. Will ECMC learn from Herzing, GCU, and Keiser? We will see how smart they really are.
"Earlier this month, Herzing University in Milwaukee announced it had converted from a for-profit college to a non-profit. The school was among those that complained bitterly about the federal rule regarding gainful employment and educational costs, saying it would have a "devastating impact" on Herzing, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
In 2013, Herzing settled with Minnesota's attorney general after opening a medical assistant training program that wasn't fully accredited.
In 2011, Keiser University in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., sold itself to a non-profit operated by the Keiser family that controlled the university. That move came months after Florida's attorney general opened an investigation of the school on complaints of "misrepresentations regarding financial aid."
The Keiser deal was financed by a loan from the for-profit company to the non-profit, according to a summary in a 2012 U.S. Senate report on for-profit schools.
The report, from the Democrat-controlled committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, cast the conversions as a way of preserving access to taxpayer funds with fewer regulations.
"Conversion to non-profit status to avoid a regulation would seem to defeat the purpose of the non-profit tax status, which is to provide an educational and charitable public purpose that justifies exemption from Federal taxes," the report noted.
"Keiser is free from not only the obligation to pay taxes, but from regulatory requirements that pertain only to for-profit colleges, including that no more than 90 percent of revenues be received from Federal financial aid programs," the report said. "As a non-profit, Keiser is also eligible for much higher levels of State-based grant aid. Florida, for example, makes up to $2,425 per student available to students attending non-profit schools compared to $945 per student at for-profit schools."
Read more at http://www.azcentral.com/story/money/business/2015/01/17/gcu-non-profit-break-new-ground-enrich-execs/21942343/