The Worst School In Private Education
It is no secret that privatized educational institutions are heavily unregulated. It is no secret that many of these institutions have access to tax payer federal funds through the Department of Education, and it is no secret that the current head of the DOE, Betsy Devos backs these institutions regardless of their behavior or violation of law.
Let us use former Trump University as an example. The former head of Trump University, and current 45th president of the United States, didn’t have an educational program that lasted long. Founded in 2005, Trump promised a curriculum that would teach people how to be a real estate investor but was openly quoted as saying that founding the school had more to do with his “legacy as an educator” than it did with a legitimate education. The institution was pocketing tax payer money and promising a curriculum that was not delivered upon. As history unfolded, the school was shut down. In this sense, someone at the Department of Education did their job correctly. Why allow a fraudulent educational institution to borrow tax dollars from American citizens via the Department of Education, with very few checks and balances in place?
But this story isn’t about Trump university. This story is about The Academy of Art University (AAU) in San Francisco, one of the largest, federally backed fraudulent educational institutions in the United States, and the largest art school in the nation.
Elisa Stephens, the embattled third generation head of the school, has managed the school via The Stephens Institute, a private, clandestine organization founded long before she took over the school from her father. Little is known about The Stephens Institute outside of rumor and hearsay, and any attempt and finding information about the corporation is met with closed doors and even worse, harassment. Yet every year, it receives tax payer funds from the DOE, and continues to hide it’s true intentions and business dealings.
For example, the head of the board for the Academy of Art, as of 2018, is a woman named Nancy Houston, a NATO general and non-transparent leader who has almost seamlessly merged the Academy of Art, with a Governmental regulatory power that has the ability to go to war… against the students of the Academy. Let us think about that for a moment.
On NATO’s own website, located here: https://www.nato.int/nato-welcome/index.html , they define the power they wield as: “ If diplomatic efforts fail, it has the military power to undertake crisis-management operations. These are carried out under the collective defence clause of NATO’s founding treaty — Article 5 of the Washington Treaty or under a United Nations mandate, alone or in cooperation with other countries and international organisations.”
Basically, AAU has the ability to go to war with it’s own students.
The Academy of Art University has a foreign student acceptance rate of 100%. Since most of these students are Chinese, but many also come from countries such as Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Russia, Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey, and Afghanistan, is it unreasonable to question what that vetting process for allowing students from other countries is? Since AAU receives Federal tax payer funds, it seems only natural to be transparent in this practice, but the Stephens Institute, NATO, and The Academy of Art, are not being transparent.
It makes you wonder, with so much political weight behind them, why the Academy of Art gets away with so much fraudulent activity. For example:
A 2009 whistleblower lawsuit that is still ongoing: https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Academy-of-Art-loses-ruling-case-alleging-13186360.php
A 2017 class action suit for underpaid and over worked teachers: https://www.rhdtlaw.com/current-class-action/trelles-v-academy-art-university-et-al/
A 2016 San Francisco lawsuit against AAU for violating land use laws: https://www.sfcityattorney.org/2016/12/19/herrera-secures-landmark-settlement-valued-60-million-academy-art-university/
The in the above lawsuit, City Attorney Dennis Herrera claims: “The Academy of Art University and its real estate affiliates behaved for more than a decade like they were above the law,” Herrera said. “We’ve ensured those days are over.” Unfortunately Mr. Herrera was incorrect. To continue:
Even their own teachers accuse them of coverup: https://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Fired-assistant-coach-says-Academy-of-Art-covered-11148073.php
A 2018 Class action lawsuit for the hacking theft of teacher information: https://aausettlement.worldsecuresystems.com/home
And the New York Times accusation of AAU being the largest offender in the student loan crisis: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/03/upshot/student-debt-big-culprit-graduate-school.html
And with all of that, it seems like AAU may actually be above the law, which brings us to the worst case of all.
In 2015, a student by the name of Aaryn Goldberg was murdered while attending The Academy of Art: https://www.nbcbayarea.com/investigations/Family-Searches-for-Answers-to-Mysterious-Death-in-Marin-Headlands-415051123.html
The Academy of Art covered up Aaryn’s murder. While her parents and friends have an open class action lawsuit against the corrupt institution for the continued violation of Residents Rights Laws, which they claim Aaryn was a victim of, located here: http://www.mcgranepc.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Goldberg-v-Stephens-CGC-17-557866-Second-Amended-Complaint.pdf , it makes you wonder… how does the Academy of Art keep getting away with this? If City Attorney Dennis Herrera believes they are above the law… then does anyone else recognize AAU’s behavior?
Why is the worst of the worst for-profit educational institution still standing? What will it take for the Department of Education to shut them down? Why is the Federal Government protecting them, when AAU can’t even protect their own students?
Because you know, if something does go wrong and a student is murdered… Coverup is apparently always an option.
If you or someone you know has been harmed or ripped off by the Academy of Art, please contact the FBI @ https://www.fbi.gov/tips
Or the Department of Education: https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oig/hotline.html
