Sen. Bernie Sanders’ wife made a big-ticket purchase during her tenure as head of a small, private college in Vermont – and, in the end, the institution got burned. Bernie Sanders-announced Monday in a press release that it will shut its doors, citing “insurmountable” financial hurdles.
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Jane Sanders was the president of Burlington College from 2004 to 2011. Her husband, a former mayor of Burlington, served in the House between 1991 and 2007 and has since served in the Senate. “It is with a great sense of loss to the educational community that Burlington College’s progressive and unique educational model will no longer be available to students”.
The tiny Vermont college that Bernie Sanders’ wife used to run is going out of business – done-in by a $10 million real estate deal that she spearheaded. He is now competing with Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination.
One of the more popular ways these schools have tried to attract new students is by offering seemingly huge tuition discounts – that is, offering more grant-based aid up front in order to reduce the sticker price families pay for tuition.
Since then, the school has failed to regain its footing.
But in fiscal year 2011, Burlington College raised only $279,000-though the college had earlier claimed to have secured $1.2 million in confirmed pledges. School leaders are working to place 70 continuing students at other Vermont colleges. A statement from Sanders at the time said the concerns of fraud were motivated by politics in an election year.
The loan application, provided to CNN by the Vermont Educational and Health Building Financing Agency (VEHBFA), showed that the school claimed that it would take in $2.6 million in pledged donations, and up to nearly $6 million in possible donations, to help pay off their debts.
The college’s accrediting agency, the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, will likely decide against re-accrediting the school, Holm said. “Hence, we anticipate notice from NEASC that we have not met the Commission’s financial standard, and, therefore, our accreditation will be lifted as of January 2017, and the College will not be able to award academic credit after this time”.
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On Monday, Burlington College leaders would not comment on whether there was a federal investigation ongoing. She said the college’s Board of Trustees on Friday unanimously made a decision to close the school, but the college’s commencement ceremony Saturday was absent any discussion of the school’s fate. Only 30 students had committed to attending the college in the 2016-17 academic year.
