| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | For-Profit Education |
| Founded | 1999 |
| Headquarters | Birmingham, Alabama, U.S. |
| Key people | Tom Moore, President and Chief Executive Officer Roger M. Miller, Chief Financial Officer Stan Banks, Chief Operating Officer |
| Owner(s) | Willis Stein & Partners |
| Website | http://www.ecacolleges.com/ |
Education Corporation of America, headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, is a privately held company that operates private accredited colleges across the United States. Included are four schools, plus one online school and four affiliated businesses.
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ECA was formed in 1999 with the acquisition of Virginia College. In 2000, Culinard, a culinary school was opened. They went on to purchase two Medical Career Centers in Alabama in 2001 and rolled them into the Virginia College curriculum in 2004. Also in 2004, ECA was purchased in December by Chicago-based private equity investment firm Willis Stein & Partners. In 2006, ECA purchased San Diego Golf Academy and renamed it to Golf Academy of America in 2008.
The schools are: Virginia College (including Virginia College Online), Culinard, Ecotech Institute and Golf Academy of America. Virginia College has campuses in Birmingham, Huntsville, Montgomery, and Mobile, Alabama; Jackson and Biloxi, Mississippi; Austin, Texas; Pensacola and Jacksonville, Florida; Augusta, Georgia; Chattanooga, Tennessee; and Greenville, Charleston, Spartanburg, and Columbia, South Carolina. On the business side, Virginia College offers student cosmetology services and massage services and Culinard offers catering and a café. Culinard, the Culinary Institute of Virginia College, has schools in Birmingham, Alabama, and Jacksonville, Florida. Ecotech Institute is located in Aurora, Colorado. Golf Academy of America has campuses in San Diego, California; Phoenix, Arizona; Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; and Orlando, Florida.
In 2011, former students of ECA's Virginia College in Jackson, Mississippi sued the school when they discovered that it was not accredited. The students learned the day after graduation that because the school lacked accreditation, they could not take the nursing exam required to become licensed.[1]
In 2010, a series of federal investigations showed that the for-profit education industry was rife with abuse. The investigations "found that recruiters would lure students — often members of minorities, veterans, the homeless and low-income people — with promises of quick degrees and post-graduation jobs but often leave them poorly prepared and burdened with staggering federal loans." In response to those investigations, in 2011, the Obama administration proposed a series of rules to crack down on rampant abuse in the industry. In response the proposals, ECA's owners were instrumental in a lobbying blitz that succeeded in getting the proposed rules watered-down. During the lobbying blitz, Senator Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa, who led congressional hearings into the colleges, claimed he was directly threatened by Avy Stein, a partner in the private equity firm that owns ECA.[2]