Court Declines School Recruiting Case
The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday refused to hear an appeal by the University of Phoenix seeking dismissal of a lawsuit filed under the False Claims Act, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The suit claims the school defrauded the federal government by paying school staffers to recruit students in violation of a federal rule. Most students at the school use federal loans and grants to pay tuition, the newspaper says.
The plaintiffs are former enrollment counselors at the school who say they were urged to ignore students’ academic qualifications and paid based on their recruiting numbers.
A federal judge had dismissed the suit, saying the False Claims Act did not regulate the conduct at issue, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed.
