President To Speak At Fort Stewart, Georgia
MALVEAUX: Any moment now, President Obama is going to be speaking at Fort Stewart in Hinesville, Georgia. He's unveiling a new plan to protect veterans from deceptive practices from some colleges. As soon as it happens, we're going to bring you those remarks live. First want to go to New York. CNN's Poppy Harlow. Poppy, tell us a little bit about what these practices are that the White House is tackling with this new plan.</s>HARLOW: Well, this is a very big move and a move on his own. The president is not going with Congress or waiting for Congress on this one. He's signing an executive order and what the administration is saying is it's a move to protect service members and their family members from what the administration is calling aggressive and deceptive targeting by individual educational institutions. Suzanne, you're going to hear the president likely focus on for-profit universities. You have seen them advertise heavily on television and magazines, et cetera. Some of these practices are what the administration is calling deceptive or fraudulent marketing, aggressive recruiting. And here's why it matters, a lot of federal money is going to these schools. The post-9/11 GI Bill, eight of the 10 largest recipients of that money are for-profit schools. Also for-profit schools received almost half about $280 million of military tuition assistance funds last year. Also more than a third of the GI Bill is going to the for-profit institutions. Here's the concern. You see the graduation rate there. It's 28 percent overall for these for-profit universities. That compares to about 67 percent when you talk about the graduation rate for public, non-profit universities and private non-profit universities, 67 percent and 57 percent respectively. Introducing the president, this is interesting. You will hear from Sergeant Johnny Marshall that is a sergeant from that camp, from Fort Stewart in Georgia, who the administration says had -- that may be him speaking right there. He's introducing the president who the administration said had a negative experience with a for-profit college. Also in attendance with the president and first lady, Holly Petraeus, of course, the wife of David Petraeus. She leads up this office of service member affairs at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which, of course, was put in place by the president. She has been a big advocate for protecting service members and their families from what she's calling these deceptive practices.</s>MALVEAUX: And I just want our viewers to know we're watching those live pictures of the gentleman you had mentioned introducing the president. Poppy, do we know if the industry is responding to any of this ahead of the president's remarks? Do they know what they're about to get hit with?</s>HARLOW: They absolutely do. A release went out from the White House at about 10:00 last night. I reached out to the industry lobbyist in Washington and got a response from them. This comes from the Association of Private Sectors Colleges and Universities that represents a lot of these schools. Not all of them, but let's pull up what they had to say. Part of their statement read, "APSCU is disappointed the president decided to bypass the Congress to address these issues with an executive order. Career-oriented institutions proudly serve military and veteran populations and work with congressional leaders in a bipartisan manner to address concerns about veteran education." What they will say, Suzanne, is that they have hundreds of thousands of veterans and military service men and women enrolled. They will point to the fact that they offer flexible online education. That many service members need. At the same time though when you have a 28 percent graduation rate that calls it into question as well as the outstanding loans associated with some of these schools. Interesting to note, Senator Tom Harkin, the Democrat from Iowa, has really led the way on this one. He has been looking into these schools. He's held five hearings on these schools. So I would expect as we see higher education getting a lot of attention in this administration that for- profits will be at the forefront of that one -- Suzanne.</s>MALVEAUX: All right, Poppy, thank you. Once again, President Obama and the first lady visiting U.S. troops in Georgia today. As soon as the president starts to speak, we are going to take it live. John Edwards' personal and professional life under the microscope in a North Carolina courtroom. He is on trial for misusing campaign funds. Diane Diamond will have a live report on today's testimony coming up. Here is what she said earlier about Edwards' appearance.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And he's got his impeccable suit on and his perfect GQ look, and seems very engaged at the defense table.</s>MALVEAUX: Looking for a new computer? You may want to wait a couple months for a better price. We're going to tell you why up next.