NASHVILLE (AP) - Daymar College has been hit again with a lawsuit claiming that the Kentucky-based for-profit chain of professional schools deceived students in Tennessee about the quality of its degree programs and left students deep in debt with few career opportunities.
Eight students in Tennessee filed a $25 million lawsuit in Davidson County Circuit Court alleging the school with campuses in Nashville, Murfreesboro and Clarksville duped students about the transferability of their credits and forced them to pay inflated prices for textbooks, The Tennessean reported Wednesday. (http://tnne.ws/x1awtQ)
The lawsuit filed this week is the latest in legal troubles for Owensboro-based Daymar. The Kentucky attorney general sued Daymar in July alleging violations of consumer protection laws, and the company is being sued in federal court by more than 140 current and former students who claim the school defrauded them.
But Daymar spokesman Tom Nunez said the college has accreditation through 2014 with the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools.
"We're confident that when these details are known, Daymar will be seen as the asset and force for change that we know it to be," Nunez said by email.
Elizabeth Dean, 54, of La Vergne, said after nearly three years studying nursing at Daymar Institute in Nashville, she was left with more than $30,000 in debt and nothing to show for it. She said she was led to believe that she would be able to transfer to another school to finish her studies, but she couldn't find another school that would accept the 96 credits she earned at Daymar.
"I wouldn't have gone if they told us our credits couldn't transfer," Dean said.
For-profit colleges are under scrutiny across the nation for low graduation rates and enrolling students who are unable to pay their bills. According to the U.S. Department of Education, the 10 percent of students nationwi de who attend for-profit schools account for nearly half of all student loan defaults. Daymar has a three-year loan default rate of 30.1 percent, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education, which is more than four times the default average at public schools.
"These students were trying to better themselves," said Douglas Nichol, an attorney based in Knoxville who is representing the Middle Tennessee students. "They ended up burned by massive student debt and nothing to show for it."
The lawsuit also alleges that Daymar forced students to buy textbooks from the school's bookstore at inflated prices and that faculty were not qualified to teach the courses.
Dean worked full-time while attending Daymar and continues to work 12-hour shifts as a truck driver. She had hoped the college would brighten her economic future.
"I wanted more or less to get out of what I'm doing," Dean said. "Living like this has really been hard."