[7] In April 2013, Scott Steffey, a veteran of Strayer Education Inc. and former vice chancellor of the State University of New York (SUNY) system, was named as Lesnik's permanent replacement.
[9] Until 2015, California Regent Richard Blum (Senator Dianne Feinstein's husband) was a significant shareholder of Career Education stock despite allegations of conflict of interest.
[15][16] In September 2019, The Capitol Forum reported that CECO schools "enjoyed an uptick in growth but have declined in quality metrics—spending on instruction, number of dropouts and bad debt all worsened, sometimes dramatically so.
In March 2020, The Capitol Forum reported that the US Department of Education allowed Perdoceo and its subsidiary AIU to defer $39 million in Title IV money to avoid violating the 90/10 rule.
On February 15, 2005, the company announced an adjustment related to an increase in the estimate for its allowance for doubtful accounts and a restatement for a change in revenue recognition method for its culinary and healthcare externships.
[36] California Culinary Academy, which was purchased by Career Education in 1999, was the subject of an unfavorable article in the San Francisco Weekly focusing on alleged misrepresentations and omissions made to prospective students to enroll them in the school.
On November 1, 2011, Career Education's chief executive officer resigned as corporate profits significantly fell and allegations were made involving inflated student placement statistics at its career-oriented schools in New York.
[43] In 2013, Career Education Corporation paid $10.25 million to settle the state of New York's claim that the company systematically deceived students by advertising bogus job placement rates.
[45] The New York Times also reported that if the Obama administration's "gainful employment" proposals were to go into effect, 39% of Career Education's programs would fail student loan debt-to-earnings measurements, making them ineligible for federal funds.
[47] In 2016, The Securities and Exchange Commission requested documents information regarding Career Education's fourth quarter 2014 classification of its Le Cordon Bleu campuses.
[49] In 2019, Career Education Corp. agreed to forgive $493 million in student debt in a settlement with attorneys general from 48 states and the District of Columbia, closing out a 5-year investigation.
[50] In September 2019, Perdoceo reached a $30 million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over its fraudulent use of lead generation websites to lure students.
[51] In June 2020, an internal employee whistleblower exposed the potentially unethical interference in their job by Diane Auer Jones, currently principal deputy undersecretary at the Education Department.
[53] In June 2007 Career Education announced that it would close the Brooks College campuses in Sunnyvale and Long Beach, California, and the Pittsburgh branch of the International Academy of Design and Technology.
[56] Due to continued declining enrollment, additional plans to lay off as much as 7% of CEC's workforce (900 jobs) and close 23 schools were announced on November 8, 2012.
"[58] 25% of the current faculty at the California Culinary Academy were notified of their termination in mid November, effective December 31, 2012.Year over year, student enrollment dropped 16% from 2012 to 2013.
[63] In the 2011 fiscal year, over 95% of Career Education Corporation's funds came from enrolling students whose tuition was paid for by programs sponsored by the US federal government, with about $67 million annually coming from the US Department of Defense and Veterans Administration.