Nurses, educators: For-profit Arizona College of Nursing should not come to Wisconsin
In Milwaukee, for-profit colleges touch a nerve: After several have closed in the city, some don't want to see others open.
That’s the message from the Committee for Equity in Nursing Education, a group of local educators and health care professionals advocating against plans by the Arizona College of Nursing to open a new campus in Milwaukee. The group formed in November includes support from Milwaukee chapters of the National Black Nurses Association, National Association of Hispanic Nurses and NAACP.
“Milwaukee has been here before. We will not let another for-profit college enrich itself at the expense of our most vulnerable and marginalized students,” reads a petition circulated by the committee. It refers to three for-profit institutions that closed their doors in Milwaukee between 2013 and 2016: ITT Technical Institute, Everest College and Sanford-Brown College.
The Arizona College of Nursing plans to open campuses in Milwaukee and Madison by spring 2024 and 2025, respectively, although it has yet to complete all administrative steps in the process. Its programs are accredited with the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE), the same organization that accredits other Wisconsin nursing schools.
Documents presented to the Wisconsin Board of Nursing show the Arizona College of Nursing’s program completion rate was 65% across all of its campuses nationally as of December 2022. Those figures have fluctuated in recent years, from 82% in 2018 to 58% in 2021, which the college attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The CCNE requires a 70% program completion rate — the percent of students per year who pass the NCLEX, or the standardized test for entry into the nursing procession — for its accredited programs. The state of Wisconsin requires an 80% pass rate, and publishes data annually online. Wisconsin schools that fall below the 80% benchmark receive a warning letter from the state and must create a plan for improvement.
Documents presented to the Wisconsin Board of Nursing include a list of student support services implemented since 2019 intended to increase student achievement rates. They include an advising program, a new college counselor job position intended to support students with "psycho-social" challenges, and tutoring services through tutor.com.
"Over 60% of Arizona College of Nursing students drop out for 'personal reasons' (such as) depression, abusive relationships, homelessness, pregnancy, work conflict, financial hardship, illness and death,'" according to a slide deck presented to the Wisconsin Board of Nursing.
The Arizona College of Nursing did not respond to request for comment.
Petition takes issue with 'predatory' practices used by for-profits
The petition takes issue broadly with "predatory" practices it says are common with for-profit colleges that aim to recruit students with little experience in higher education to programs that leave them with loans to pay back and difficulty finding jobs.
According to a national 2022 survey by the Federal Reserve, of the U.S. adults who have attended college, 71% went to a nonprofit institution and 5% to a private for-profit. For-profit schools were more likely to recruit first-generation college students, Black and Latino students. And 30% of students who attended for-profits were behind on student loan payments compared to 11% for students who attended public institutions.
Specific to the Arizona College of Nursing, the petition refers to a 2022 lawsuit in Texas brought by a group of Arizona College of Nursing students accusing the school of fraud, breach of contract and deceptive trade practices.
As of Dec. 21, two people have filed complaints with the Wisconsin Educational Approval Program: Michael Rosen, a now-retired professor of economics and faculty union president at Milwaukee Area Technical College, and Edna Hudson-Kinzey, president of the Milwaukee chapter of the National Black Nurses Association. Both complaints detail concerns about the ongoing Texas lawsuit, among other things.
"We know from bitter experience at Everest, Sanford Brown and ITT Tech that students who graduate do NOT obtain employment in their fields," both complaints read.
Hudson-Kinzey has been a registered nurse for 28 years. In an interview, she said that, along with affordable tuition, she wants to see nursing schools provide resources to help students graduate. Those resources should be tailored to the needs of the community being served, she said, rather than "cookie cutter" programs.
For Milwaukee, she suggested schools provide assistance with child care, transportation to clinical sites and other services that make it possible for parents to work and support their families while successfully attending nursing school.
"Those are the resources I'm talking about. Those are the barriers that prevent my Black and brown people from being able to matriculate and graduate from schools of nursing," Hudson-Kinzey said.
Students who attend the Milwaukee campus for the Arizona College of Nursing program will need access to reliable transportation. While some clinicals are scheduled for locations in Milwaukee, others are dozens of miles away in Waterford, Watertown, Racine, Janesville, Oconomowoc, West Bend and Menomonee Falls.
Students who attend for-profit schools get sucked into believing that “quicker is better,” said Damia Causey, a nursing student at MATC who formerly attended a medical assistant program through Sanford-Brown in West Allis. Causey is the wife of James Causey, a staff writer for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Many for-profit college programs promote a quick pathway to a degree and easy scheduling for people who need to work while attending school, she said. Those are the aspects of the Sanford-Brown program that Causey said drew her to enroll — and take out loans.
But her experience left her believing the college was predatory: She ended up with student loans and a string of rejections from employers on the basis of having the for-profit college on her resume. The college operated its West Allis location between 2005 and 2013, voluntarily closing as a result of poor job placement rates.
"It was a total, complete waste of time. I just felt like, ‘Wow, I wasted all of this time energy, blood, sweat and tears and it doesn’t mean anything,” Causey said.
Petition names Milwaukee Common Council, mayor
The committee’s petition names the Milwaukee Common Council and Mayor Cavalier Johnson as respondents. Common council president Jose Perez did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
Jeff Fleming, a spokesperson for the mayor's office, said Johnson has received an internal briefing on the Arizona College of Nursing's plans to open a location in Milwaukee.
"He is very aware of the troubled history of for-profit colleges here in Milwaukee. At this time he is reviewing the matter," Fleming said via email.
The Committee for Equity in Nursing Education has the support of several organizations, according to its petition:
National Black Nurses Association, Milwaukee Chapter
National Association of Hispanic Nurses, Milwaukee Chapter
NAACP, Milwaukee Chapter
Milwaukee Black Grassroots Network for Health Equity
AFT Local 212, MATC
Wisconsin Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals
Milwaukee Wellness Collective
QDC Research and Policy Consulting Group LLC
Souls to the Polls
Editor's note, Jan. 5: A previous version of this story incorrectly identified the public board in Wisconsin that received complaints related to the Arizona College of Nursing. The complaints were filed to the Wisconsin Educational Approval Program.
Cleo Krejci covers higher education, vocational training and retraining as a Report For America corps member based at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Contact her at CKrejci@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @_CleoKrejci. Support her work with a tax-deductible donation atbit.ly/RFADonation.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: For-profit college's plans for Milwaukee touch a nerve for nurses, educators
