TOPEKA — Dodge City Community College and a private Arizona helicopter flight training school agreed to pay $7.5 million to resolve allegations that enrollment reports were falsified for years to qualify the program for financial support from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
The post-9/11 GI Bill dedicated VA financial assistance to veterans taking classes in the program jointly operated by Universal Helicopters in Chandler, Arizona, and DCCC in Dodge City. A requirement of VA support was that a minimum of 15% of full-time students had to be nonveterans, a provision designed to make certain tuition and fee payments by the federal government on behalf of veterans reflected market rate.
The U.S. Department of Justice, which initiated an investigation based on a whistleblower complaint, said Monday that from 2013 to 2018 both Universal Helicopters and the community college improperly certified compliance with the so-called 85/15 rule despite evidence courses were taken almost exclusively by veterans.
In addition, the community college counted part-time students enrolled in one online class per semester as full-time students in violation of VA rules.
Duston Slinkard, U.S. attorney for Kansas, said participants in the scheme abused a program crafted to demonstrate gratitude to veterans by offering men and women with military service a path to higher education.
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