Ashley Pizzuti (2:06)

Pay to go to Harvard.

Ian Mott (2:07)

So at its peak, the for profit college industry was getting $30 billion a year from the Department of Education grants and loans. At one point, you're choosing between food.

Ashley Pizzuti (2:17)

And gas to get to work. You know, you're paying rent.

Ian Mott (2:20)

These schools are really not schools. They're call centers with some kind of a veneer of a school attached to it.

Ashley Pizzuti (2:33)

So I grew up in Northern California in, essentially in a trailer park with a single mom. I got a camera for Easter when I was seven.

Ian Mott (2:43)

That's Ashley Pizzuti. Ashley has loved photography ever since she got her first camera.

Ashley Pizzuti (2:49)

While most kids played house, I would play portrait studio. I would invite all the neighbors over. I would use bed sheets and lamps and experiment with different lights.

Ian Mott (3:03)

And Ashley's mom supported her passion for photography in other ways. She subscribed to National Geographic, which, if you don't know, is famous for its incredible photography.

Ashley Pizzuti (3:13)

Going to the mailbox every month and getting that magazine was probably the best day of the month for me. I just pored over the images.

Ian Mott (3:23)

Ashley took her camera everywhere she could and jumped at opportunities to use it. In high school, she worked for the yearbook and took a job at a portrait studio where she excelled. But in her mom's eyes, it was essential that she went to college.

Ashley Pizzuti (3:38)

She had dropped out of college to marry my dad and that ended up not really working out really well for her. Her situation was always very much, you know, go to college, don't end up like me. And so I did end up going to a community college. My mom was sort of pushing me into becoming a teacher. And so I had spent my years at the community college kind of on that track. I knew it wasn't right for me. And then once I, you know, was kind of ending that and figuring out what the next step was, I was at work at the portrait studio and I had picked up a magazine and there was an ad for Brooks Institute in there.

Ian Mott (4:19)

The Brooks Institute of Photography was a small private college in Santa Barbara, just north of LA. Founded in 1945, it had built a solid reputation for training award winning photographers. Ashley was connected with a recruiter named Tim. He asked her about her goals and her love for photography. He sounded really enthusiastic about the program.

Ashley Pizzuti (4:42)

And then he started asking me questions about my life. What is it like with a single mom? How is your relationship with your boyfriend? How is your relationship with your family?

Ian Mott (4:53)

These questions probably sound a bit invasive for a college recruiter. But remember, Brooks represented a dream come true and an escape. Her relationship with her mom was tense because of college and her relationship with her boyfriend wasn't particularly healthy either. So Tim presented a way out.

Ashley Pizzuti (5:13)

He knew what time I got off work and within a few minutes of being home, my phone would ring and it would be him. How was your day? How did work go? You know, what's going on with your relationship? I would tell him details and he'd be like, oh my gosh, did he do this? Did he do this?

Ian Mott (5:30)

Tim was able to tap into Ashley's struggles and he sold Brooks as A fresh start.

Ashley Pizzuti (5:36)

Get out of that town. Get away from your mom. Get away from this relationship. You're going to fall in love with Santa Barbara. This will change your life. Let's kickstart your life now. This is the life that you want. The time from when I first made that phone call to when I actually enrolled was, I think, just shy of a month. And the very first day of classes, with a little pep in my step, I go to the school.

Ian Mott (6:06)

One of the first things she wanted to do was to say hi to Tim and to thank him for helping her get there. Fortunately, he had an office on campus.

Ashley Pizzuti (6:15)

I enter my recruiter's office where he is hastily throwing all of his personal items into a box. And he is angry and he turns to me and he goes, I am so sorry. These people are liars. I am sorry you are in this situation. You need to watch your back. And then he grabbed his box of stuff and he left the building. And I am just standing in the doorway completely stunned. Like, this wind has been taken out of my sails.

Ian Mott (6:50)

This is the second part of our mini series on for profit colleges in the us Last week, you heard the basics of the industry, its history, and the damage it does to students like Mike De Giacomo. This week we're covering how and why it's nearly impossible for victims of for profit schools to escape debt and when former students fight to get relief. I'm Ian Mott and this is Campus Files. This week, for profit part 2. Throne to the Wolves.

Ashley Pizzuti (7:28)

The situation with the recruiter in the office left me a little shook, but I was here. I was ready to put all my eggs into this basket.

Ian Mott (7:39)

It's the first day of class for Ashley Pizzuti. She just stopped by her recruiter's office only to find out he's been fired. He stormed out after warning her not to trust anyone at Brooks. But Ashley's just moved halfway across California and can't turn back. So she focused on getting ready for class.

Ashley Pizzuti (7:59)

I was excited about the first class. I'm there with 20 other people who are all equally as excited to be there.

Ian Mott (8:07)

But right away, Ashley noticed something was off. Her classmates seemed completely unprepared. Some had never even picked up a camera before.

Ashley Pizzuti (8:16)

We were told that we had to submit portfolios during the recruitment process. And to find out that some of my classmates had never even taken a photo before this class was sort of like, that's weird. How did you get in here?

Ian Mott (8:32)

If you think this sounds a bit familiar, you'd be right. Last week, Mike digiacomo talked about being in a supposedly selective art school alongside people who could barely draw a face. While Mike was having that experience the very same semester Ashley started at Brooks, Even though they didn't know each other existed and were on opposite coasts, they actually had a lot in common. They were both students of the exact same company, A company whose playbook relied on buying up small, formerly prestigious schools and cashing in on the brand while gutting the program. The playbook used on both Mike and Ashley was nearly identical, even down to the financial paperwork.

Ashley Pizzuti (9:15)

At the last day of every session before you went on your week break, you would line up in the financial aid office. They were handing out Krispy Kreme doughnuts. So you had your donut, and you waited in line, and you signed up for your next classes, and then you walked to the financial aid desk, and they had you sign some paperwork, but was very much like, we have to get through all these students, so we got to make this quick. And then they handed you a check, which was the money left over from after tuition was taken out.

Ian Mott (9:46)

Brooks withdrew as much loan money as possible per student, subtracted their bill, and then handed over the small remaining amount, which was supposed to cover living expenses, equipment, and class materials.

Ashley Pizzuti (9:58)

There was never any statements given. There was never any sort of paperwork that was handed to you. It was just sign up for your classes, grab your check, get out.

Ian Mott (10:08)

And just like for Mike, this all seemed normal. But then something happened, something that would completely change Ashley's experience at Brooks.

Ashley Pizzuti (10:18)

At the end of 2003, Brooks had a whistleblower. They did work with student records. She had brought the attention to the school first, that the student records were not matching up to what was being filed. So their stats on graduation rates, who's enrolled, who's staying enrolled, all of those were being skewed.

Ian Mott (10:41)

The whistleblower claimed that Brooks was supplying inaccurate numbers on enrollment, graduation, and the general student experience, all of which is data that is vital for staying eligible for federal funding. Brooks was quick to assure students that the whistleblower was just a disgruntled former employee and that there was nothing to worry about. So Ashley took them at their word. What she didn't know was that there was also a group of former Brooks students that had just sued Brooks and their parent company, the whistleblower. And the lawsuits drew the attention of a division of the California Consumer Protection Bureau, which kicked off an undercover investigation.

Ashley Pizzuti (11:18)

They wrote a scathing letter to Brooks saying, this school needs to be shut down immediately. Do not enroll more students. You need to refund everyone who's attended.

Ian Mott (11:30)

The school or Brooks pushed back against the investigation's findings. Enough that for Ashley there was room for doubt. And she was halfway through the program, so it seemed best to stick it out.

Ashley Pizzuti (11:43)

And then New York Times published an article called the School that Skipped Ethics Class all about Brooks and how they were misleading students. And then after that, 60 Minutes did a big report on Career Education Corporation. Not an artist. It doesn't matter anymore. If you've ever worked daytime tv, you've probably seen one of Career Education Corporation's ads offering students a brand new life. Ever think you could be part of this?

Ian Mott (12:13)

This was the first time Ashley learned who actually owned the Brooks Institute. It was puzzling because Ashley knew Brooks history. It was founded shortly after World War II. The first 12 students were all returning veterans and was run by the Brooks family for decades. It became a world renowned school producing Pulitzer Prize winning photographers. But what Ashley didn't know was that the family had run into financial Troubles and in 1999 sold the school to Career Education Corporation, also known as cec. Two years earlier, CEC had also purchased Gibbs College, the school Mike was attending.

Ashley Pizzuti (12:52)

It wasn't until after the whistleblower that I even knew that the school was owned by a Career Education Corporation. They kept that very much under wraps.

Ian Mott (13:02)

You may find it surprising that Ashley didn't know about CEC earlier. But remember, this is the mid 2000s. Information like that was not so easy to come by before widespread Internet use. And besides, what reason would Ashley have to look into the ownership? And this ownership is important because cec, like many other for profit school chains, operated by buying up small, successful, but financially troubled schools. It's part of that playbook I mentioned earlier. Once in charge, they would gut the program while ramping up recruitment and enrollment, cutting costs and increasing revenue. Good for the bottom line, but not for students.

Ashley Pizzuti (13:42)

As journalists in the program, we all started to really sort of pay attention, but we were very much stuck. We didn't invest a ton of money and so it was in our best interest to finish the program.

Ian Mott (13:57)

So in spite of the bad press around cec, Ashley stuck around. And graduation made it all feel worth it.

Ashley Pizzuti (14:07)

Walking in graduation was an incredible moment. It was the first time in my life that I felt like I really achieved something. Being the first in my family to graduate college. Obviously my mom was very proud. That meant the world to me knowing that I had accomplished this. And not only did I accomplish this, that I was graduating top of my class. I had won all these awards and I was going to change the world with my photojournalism. I was so excited to start this life that I was promised now.

Ian Mott (14:42)

Ashley walked at graduation, but she didn't technically have her degree yet. She still had to finish an internship, but she had one arranged so she was invited to walk. After graduating, Ashley moved to New York City for an internship. She'd found an opportunity with two world renowned photojournalists. It felt like things had finally come together. She and her new boyfriend, also from Brooks, had plans to settle down in New England.

Ashley Pizzuti (15:08)

And so my internship is winding down. I'm looking at what I'm going to do next. And because I had all my mail sent to my boyfriend's mother's house in Massachusetts, I didn't really get the student loan bill until he had come back to kind of help me finish out that last week and move myself home. And so he had brought my mail and I just remember opening it up and seeing that number and just bawling and I could not believe that I had borrowed enough to buy a house. Let's be honest, finding time to cook.

Ian Mott (15:51)

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Ashley Pizzuti (16:44)

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Ian Mott (18:52)

When Ashley opened her first loan bill, she was in shock. The number on the page was almost impossible to process.

Ashley Pizzuti (19:00)

We're looking at, I think it was somewhere around $140,000 for a photography degree in journalism.

Ian Mott (19:07)

$140,000 in 2006 is just over 219,000 today. Then, just when it seemed things couldn't get worse, more bad news arrived.

Ashley Pizzuti (19:19)

I had an exit interview with the school and I'm on the phone with them and they said, we know that you have moved your whole entire life to the east coast, but we decided that some of your credits that we had agreed to transfer from your community college transcripts no longer qualify. And they said, oh, we're sorry but you're going to need to come re enrollment and also you're going to have to re enroll at our new rates.

Ian Mott (19:46)

Moving back to California was an impossible ask for Ashley. So she asked if instead she could take those courses at a local community college. She's told that would work for all but one course.

Ashley Pizzuti (19:57)

I never Got that expensive degree. So I technically don't even have a bachelor's degree. And if I were to go back to school, I'd start over from square one.

Ian Mott (20:09)

In a matter of weeks, the high of graduation had come crashing down. Ashley had $140,000 of debt and no degree. So she called the career services office, the same one that had promised her connections at National Geographic, the magazine she pored over as a child. Instead, they sent her copy pasted Craigslist postings from the Santa Barbara area. Remember, she'd moved to Massachusetts, which Brooks knew.

Ashley Pizzuti (20:35)

This is early 2006, so this is the beginning of the housing crisis. Newspapers were laying people off. My boyfriend and I are calling all over the country trying to get any kind of job in journalism and newspapers. The only job that I was able to get was at a mall portrait studio. So here I am. The only income that I could get was the same income that was I making in high school.

Ian Mott (21:03)

When Ashley received her first loan bill, she was able to arrange for loan forbearance. Forbearance allowed her to delay making payments while she searched for stable work. But nobody told her that interest continued to build even while on forbearance.

Ashley Pizzuti (21:18)

I maximized the forbearance, and in those 18 months that I took forbearance, my student loans went up $40,000. They put us on what they called the graduated payment program. So we were paying the lowest amount. It was still several thousand dollars a month.

Ian Mott (21:39)

Both Ashley and her boyfriend, who had also gone to Brooks, were struggling with a mountain of debt, which combined came out to just under half a million dollars.

Ashley Pizzuti (21:50)

50% of our income went to these loans for many, many years. There was this deep sense of shame that kind of ran through all of us. And so it's just not something you talked about. And I think that's by design.

Ian Mott (22:07)

In spite of the debt, Ashley and her boyfriend got married in a small ceremony. The financial situation had strained their relationship at points, but they were dedicated to each other and did what they could to build a life together. And one day, a small letter arrived in the mail that seemed to finally offer a way out.

Ashley Pizzuti (22:25)

We get a tiny little postcard saying CEC is part of a class action lawsuit brought against students for defrauding them. And I'm like, hell yes. Awesome. Let's sign up for it. What do we need to do?

Ian Mott (22:40)

The class action lawsuit was brought in 2007 based on evidence from the whistleblower Ashley talked about earlier. Ashley and others received their settlement checks.

Ashley Pizzuti (22:50)

In 2009 after the settlement, we each got a check for $1,200, which at the time was less than one month's payment.

Ian Mott (23:00)

A settlement check for $1,200, less than 1% of her original loan balance.

Ashley Pizzuti (23:07)

The language in the settlement makes it so that we can never sue cec. Also, if you didn't hand write the back to that postcard, you were automatically included. So you only got a check if you responded. But if you also did not respond and eliminate yourself from the lawsuit, you were considered a plaintiff by default.

Ian Mott (23:32)

The class action included every student who attended Brooks since CEC purchased the school in 1999. Many students thought the class action notice was junk mail and never responded. Those students never received a check, but still lost the right to sue CEC in the future.

Ashley Pizzuti (23:50)

And just after that, CEC started putting arbitration clauses in their promissory notes, making it nearly impossible to be sued.

Ian Mott (23:59)

An arbitration clause means that any legal dispute between a student and a CEC owned school had to be settled out of court. So one of the very few avenues for help was suddenly taken away. Ashley and her husband were stuck once again.

Ashley Pizzuti (24:13)

We had to work a lot because we owed a lot of money, and my mom was a co signer on my loans. My husband's mom was a co signer on his private loans. And so our life just became this hamster wheel of trying to pay our bills. No matter how much I paid towards them, they were continuously growing. They never went down.

Ian Mott (24:37)

And perhaps most painful for Ashley was the way the debt impacted her mother and the wedge it drove between them. Because her mom was a co signer on the loans, she was also liable for the debt. If Ashley ever fell behind on payments, her mother would be held responsible, too.

Ashley Pizzuti (24:54)

The height of graduating and having her be proud of me, it's the opposite. Now. She's incredibly frustrated. She's disappointed.

Ian Mott (25:06)

That hamster wheel continued for years, and it took a significant toll on Ashley's marriage.

Ashley Pizzuti (25:12)

We were both just really dealing with a lot of depression about our financial situation. It just felt unending. Doing the math, we would be in our 80s before we could pay these off.

Ian Mott (25:25)

Brooks traded on its historic reputation for as long as it could. But eventually, the consistently weakening program and the mounting bad press became too much. In 2016, Ashley got the news that the Brooks Institute was abruptly closing its doors.

Ashley Pizzuti (25:40)

When the school shut down, it was a lot of emotions. And so I started my own Facebook group. And it quickly, you know, within weeks, grew to the hundreds. At the height of it, we had 2,000 borrowers that were Just from Brooks.

Ian Mott (25:57)

Almost by accident, Ashley found herself at the head of a large group of former Brooks students who had all been victimized by cec.

Ashley Pizzuti (26:05)

And I'm like, well, wait a second, why don't we have any data on these borrowers? And so I put together this very extensive Google form and we got just under 500 borrowers to fill it out. And we were collectively $70 million in debt.

Ian Mott (26:23)

At its height, Brooks had almost 2,000 students enrolled each each year. So 500 borrowers is a small fraction of Brooks total population, yet they accounted for $70 million of debt. This survey was the start of a nearly decade long investigation into Brooks and cec. She didn't know it yet, but Ashley would soon uncover government corruption and proof of widespread deceptive practices. All of this leading to the millions of dollars in debt broken students were suffocating under. After completing the survey, Ashley took a closer look at the investigation into Brooks from back when she was a student, the one the state did in response to the whistleblower.

Ashley Pizzuti (27:05)

At that time in California, that program was part of the Consumer Protection Bureau. It was a subset of that. It was greatly underfunded. They didn't have a lot of resources for investigations, but they took this seriously. They sent a few of their employees to do an undercover investigation. And in that investigation they were told similar stories. They would be making $100,000 out of school, they promised jobs.

Ian Mott (27:37)

And when all of this information was released in a report in 2004, Brooks responded aggressively. As a student, all Ashley heard was that they had appealed the findings. And she was assured by Brooks staff that it was all a misunderstanding. A closer look painted a much different picture.

Ashley Pizzuti (27:54)

Of course CEC fought it. The lawsuit went back and forth because of the whistleblower. Because of this investigation, CEC stocks plummeted.

Ian Mott (28:07)

When this report was published, CEC stock prices dropped around 50%. Some shareholders thought this spelled doom for CEC, so they sold off their shares to new investors.

Ashley Pizzuti (28:19)

In that time, a lot of shareholders then picked up those stocks. One of those shareholders was Richard Blum, who owned Blum Capital up in San Francisco and was married to Senator Dianne Feinstein.

Ian Mott (28:36)

Richard Blum's firm, Blum Capital, had actually owned part of a different for profit college company decades earlier. They sold their stake in the mid-90s after it had repeated scandals of its own. They clearly wanted a route back into for profit schools though, because when CEC stocks tumbled, Blum's firm bought a majority stake for a reported $33 million. But remember, at the time, Brooks was still under investigation from the California watchdog agency known as bppve. The investigation and the bad press made this investment risky for most buyers, but Blum had connections that could help clear things up.

Ashley Pizzuti (29:16)

Richard Blum was also good friends with Arnold Schwarzenegger, who had become governor of California after Blum became the majority shareholder of cec. Arnold Schwarzenegger dismantled the bpbve and the investigation was never reopened.

Ian Mott (29:38)

BPPVE ceased operations in 2007. At the same time this happened, Senator Feinstein bought her own stake in CEC and introduced federal legislation which opened the door for additional federal dollars to for profit schools. What Ashley now understood was that legislators had the power to make or break the for profit industry. She'd been unable to find relief through her lender or the courts, so making inroads with legislators may be the only way out. In fact, another major for profit school chain had abruptly shuttered, forcing the Obama administration to finally pay some attention to the industry. Perhaps change was coming.

Ashley Pizzuti (30:20)

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Ian Mott (31:03)

Eczema isn't always obvious, but it's real.

Ashley Pizzuti (31:07)

And so is the relief from Ebglis.

Ian Mott (31:10)

After an initial dosing phase of 16.

Ashley Pizzuti (31:12)

Weeks, about 4 in 10 people taking EBGLIS achieved itch relief and clear or almost clear skin.

Ian Mott (31:17)

And most of those people maintain skin.

Ashley Pizzuti (31:18)

That'S still more clear at one year.

Ian Mott (31:20)

With month a 250mg injection is a prescription medicine used to treat adults and children 12 years of age and older who weigh at least 88 pounds or 40 kilograms with moderate to severe eczema, also called atopic dermatitis, that is not well controlled with prescription therapies used on the skin or topicals or who cannot use topical therapies. Ebglis can be used with or without topical corticosteroids. Don't use if you're allergic to Ebglis. Allergic reactions can occur that can be Severe eye problems can occur. Tell your doctor if you have New Orleans worsening eye problems. You should not receive a live vaccine when treated with ebglis. Before starting Epglis, tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection searching for real relief.

Ashley Pizzuti (31:56)

Ask your doctor about eglis and visit ebgliss.lilly.com or call 1-800-lilyrx or 1-800-545-5979.

Ian Mott (32:07)

It's November 2016, and Ashley is reeling from the shock of Donald Trump winning the presidential election. By this point, she was deep down the rabbit hole of investigating Brooks and the Career Education Corporation. And now relief seemed impossible.

Ashley Pizzuti (32:22)

Lawyer after lawyer would essentially just shut the door in our face. We can't help you. This is too big. We're not going to go up against the Department of Education.

Ian Mott (32:32)

So Ashley took on the responsibility of advocating for herself. And then Covid hit near the end of the first Trump presidency. It brought her wedding photography business to a screeching halt.

Ashley Pizzuti (32:43)

When the pandemic hit, it gave me the space to actually organize my notes. And I was actually able to put all of this research and data into just kind of a cohesive manner.

Ian Mott (32:56)

And when Biden won the White House in 2020, a number of new doors opened.

Ashley Pizzuti (33:01)

Then I started to sort of build out a network of organizations. People were starting to pay attention. I was getting invited into these meetings with the Department of ed.

Ian Mott (33:14)

Ashley was even selected to be part of the negotiating team for Biden's Plan B, the replacement student loan relief program, after the original was struck down by the Supreme Court. And in addition to trying to give partial relief for all student loan holders, Biden also gave broader relief to victims of specific and well known scam schools. So Ashley thought, why can't we get the same for Brooks? By this point, it's early 2024.

Ashley Pizzuti (33:41)

So in early spring, I knew that we were sitting on a substantial amount of evidence. Let's compile all of the evidence that we have from all of these borrowers and stories and start putting them together in a cohesive way and we'll send them to the department. And we were invited through the Debt Collective's day of action in May. And several for profit borrowers, including myself, were able to land a meeting with the Department of Education. So it was an incredibly hot day in D.C. i walked several blocks with about 40 pounds of paper and I made this beautiful plopping sound of all of this evidence when it hit the table. And it was pretty amazing.

Ian Mott (34:26)

Ashley left the meeting feeling optimistic. Over the next few months, she got follow up questions and shared more evidence. But the 2024 election was looming and there was still no relief for Brooks students. For Ashley, Kamala Harris was a very appealing option. Back when she was California Attorney General, she actually led an investigation into Corinthian Colleges, a major for profit chain. We'll cover that investigation more in the next episode. But Corinthian collapsed in 2015 partly due to that investigation.

Ashley Pizzuti (34:58)

Harris, with her reputation in taking down Corinthian, we were all very much hopeful that she would be put in power, but we're very much aware of the reality of that not happening.

Ian Mott (35:14)

So Ashley and organizers from other schools started arranging meetings with senators to make a push for relief, hopefully before the election.

Ashley Pizzuti (35:22)

We have a meeting with Durbin. Can you help us? We have a meeting with Markey. Can you help us? We kept asking everybody, would you lead a congressional letter saying that we deserve to have this loan cancellation? And they're like, we'll sign one, but we can't lead it. And so this is August, September, October.

Ian Mott (35:41)

And then November 2024.

Ashley Pizzuti (35:45)

It is now official. CNN projects that Donald Trump has been elected president, defeating Vice President Kamala Harris and making a political comeback. As hard as it was to get any of these meetings before the election, as soon as the election happened, we couldn't keep up with the amount of emails and people wanting to meet with us. It was like, okay, we need to protect these borrowers now. Which was frustrating because it's like, where were you guys three months ago when we were trying to get your help? At that point, nobody had even agreed to lead our letter. And finally Markey said, okay, we're going to lead a letter.

Ian Mott (36:22)

There were now just three months left in the Biden administration. Ashley was in a race for relief. In December 2024, she organized a day of action in D.C. we had our.

Ashley Pizzuti (36:33)

Press conference and we had 70 other legislators that had signed on to agree that not just Brooks, but all the for profit bad actors should have their loans canceled. And Biden needs to do something and these need to be wiped out before he leaves office. And after the press conference, we took our borrowers and we went to the Department of Education with bullhorns. We stood outside as we watched people peeking through the blinds. There's tears streaming down people's faces like, I'm $500,000 in debt for a worthless degree. Please do something.