SNHU’s new operations center in Tucson, Arizona

Contact: Gerard Scimeca (gds@caseforconsumers.org)

February 23, 2021

Unfair Application of the “LeBlanc Method”

(Arlington, VA) — As president of the Southern University of New Hampshire, Paul LeBlanc has leveraged an enormous advertising budget over the past two decades ($139 million in 2018) to dramatically grow the school’s primarily online enrollment from 8,000 to 80,000 students and expand West opening a new operation center last year in Tucson, 2,700 miles from main campus.

Coined the “LeBlanc Method”, many universities – including state-supported schools – are now aggressively advertising online offerings in an effort to enlarge their coffers, while skirting scrutiny from the U.S. Department of Education or accrediting bodies.

For example, the University of Maryland is applying the same blueprint, hiring LeBlanc’s deputy and allocating a half a billion dollars for advertising over six years.

But according to a new briefing paper released by Consumer Action for a Strong Economy (CASE), traditional universities unfairly benefit from the “LeBlanc Method” because of multiple institutional advantages over career colleges.

“Traditional higher education is broken, but like any archaic monopoly, they want to limit choice, raise the cost of their product, and discourage better alternatives,” said Gerard Scimeca, CASE Co-founder, attorney, and report author. “In contrast, career colleges offer advanced education programs geared toward skill-based fields leading to careers in professions that customarily require certification or credentialing.”

As the paper explores, career colleges – such as CollegeAmerica in Colorado – face arbitrary advertising oversight and unreasonable outcome expectations, without access to government subsidies.

“A double standard exists against career colleges and the students who choose these schools,” added Mr. Scimeca. “The entrenched establishment, along with the politicians and judges who protect their monopoly, threaten students’ prospects for enduring economic opportunity and financial security within a competitive global workforce.”

Download the briefing paper here.