The Dawn Buckingham (R) Candidate Resume Fraud File

Two months prior to announcing her 2016 Republican candidacy for State Senate District 24, Dawn Buckingham served on the Board of Governors (2013-2015) of the controversial for-profit National American University. However, Buckingham omitted this significant Board position from her campaign website and materials. She even violated state ethics requirements by not disclosing this Board position on her recently filed 2016 Personal Financial Statement.

Source:
March 2015 National American University Newsletter;
Dawn Buckingham 2014 - 2016 Personal Financial Statements Filed with Texas Ethics Commission;
dawnbuckingham.com;
Senate candidate Buckingham under scrutiny for ties to "predatory" for-profit college

Immediately prior to, during and after Buckingham’s tenure on its Board of Governors, NAU has been in hot water being cited multiple times for ripping off veterans of their GI Bill education funding and then leaving veterans with large college loan debts and worthless courses and degrees that don’t lead to jobs. 

Source:
GIBill.com shut down in settlement over defrauding veterans;
For Profit Higher Education: The Failure to Safeguard the Federal Investment and Ensure Student Success – United States Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee; See page 68 of the report, footnote #240
National American University For-Profit Report

Investigations linking NAU to predatory profiteering off veterans have come from formal congressional investigative reports, fraud lawsuits filed by state attorney generals, and harsh studies by veterans’ organizations.

NAU is based in South Dakota and is run by Buckingham’s family. It also operates in other states including Texas (in the Austin and Dallas areas) as a multi-million dollar publicly traded for-profit business that generates 70-90 percent of its revenues from taxpayer funded federal college education funds including money from veterans and their GI Bill funds. Heavily criticized for putting shareholder profits ahead of student education, NAU spends only a third of its revenue on instruction with the rest of its revenue going to marketing, administration and profit. Its shareholder profit is mostly derived from aggressively marketing college degrees that cost dramatically more than similar degrees from community colleges and state universities. The majority of NAU’s courses are taught online by part-time instructors.

Nationally, only 12% of college students are enrolled in for-profit universities like NAU; however, these for-profit universities account for almost half of the country's unpaid federal college loan debt.

Source:

For Profit Higher Education: The Failure to Safeguard the Federal Investment and Ensure Student Success – United States Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee;
National American University For-Profit Report;
GIBill.com shut down in settlement over defrauding veterans

Buckingham’s NAU resume fraud went completely unnoticed in State Senate District 24’s Republican primary (which had six candidates), but her NAU Board omission came to light in the runoff after a question by a veterans organization and an investigation by the Austin-based Quorum Report. 

According to the Quorum Report's article published on April 25, 2016 — Jim Brennan Legislative Director for the Texas Coalition of Veterans Organizations, said Buckingham's ties to a “predatory higher education institution” are deeply troubling. "These universities go in and target veterans and market this as a path for your educational benefits," Brennan said. "We are very, very concerned about it."

The Quorum Report investigation also found that Buckingham receives substantial annual compensation from NAU and is a substantial NAU stockholder. 

Shockingly too, the Quorum Report noted that 72% of Buckingham's campaign contributions and loans came from stockholders and/or board members of NAU.

Source:
Senate candidate Buckingham under scrutiny for ties to "predatory" for-profit college

And this may not be the first time Buckingham has withheld her substantive involvement with NAU and the predatory for-profit university industry.  It appears from video recordings of the Sunset Commission’s December 2014 meeting that Buckingham (as Lt. Governor David Dewhurst’s “Citizen Appointee” to the Commission) secretly lobbied her fellow Commission colleagues to weaken staff proposals to crack down on the predatory for-profit career and university industry in Texas. 

Source:
Texas Sunset Commission Hearing – 12/10/14; Buckingham's remarks begin at 1:34:00 and continue past the 1:50:00 mark.

Buckingham came in second place in the March 1st primary and is now running in the May 24th Republican primary runoff. This district includes Fort Hood (the largest Army base in the country), Dyess Air Force Base, and thousands of veteran families and retirees.

Timeline of Buckingham's Candidate Resume Fraud

2012 - US Senate Investigation & State Attorneys General Investigation

• A fraud investigation by 20 State Attorneys General uncovered that National American University (under the leadership of Buckingham’s family) was one of several for-profit universities using a deceptive website "GIBill.com" that was preying upon veterans and their GI Bill education money. The website’s operators were fined, the website shut down, and the website's name turned over the United States Department of Veterans' Affairs.

Source:
GIBill.com shut down in settlement over defrauding veterans;
For Profit Higher Education: The Failure to Safeguard the Federal Investment and Ensure Student Success; See page 68 of the report, footnote #240

• In 2012, the United States Senate also released the results of a two-year investigation of the predatory for-profit university industry. The investigation targeted National American University and 14 other for-profit schools for putting corporate profit ahead of student education and leaving veterans and other students with massive debt in unpaid college loans for degrees. The report noted that NAU and these other for-profit schools were charging substantially more for college degrees than similar educational costs at state universities or community colleges. The investigation specifically exposed the deceptive and predatory marketing practices that NAU was using to recruit veterans and other students.

Source:
For Profit Higher Education: The Failure to Safeguard the Federal Investment and Ensure Student Success – United States Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee;
National American University For-Profit Report;

• The 2012 United States Senate for-profit university investigation also brought to light that Buckingham's father-in-law (who is also now the largest contributor in her 2016 State Senate bid) paid himself as Chairman of NAU over $3 million dollars in 2010 for managing a university with just 8,000 students. Comparatively, this salary is more than the collective salaries of the Chancellors of the UT system, Texas A&M system and Texas Tech system which have collectively over 400,000 students.

Source:
For Profit Higher Education: The Failure to Safeguard the Federal Investment and Ensure Student Success – United States Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee;
National American University For-Profit Report;
Pay is Climbing Fast for Texas University Leaders

2013 - Buckingham Begins Serving on NAU Board of Governors

• As a financially compensated stockholder, Dawn Buckingham began her service on the Board of Governors of NAU as it aggressively marketed for veterans and economically disadvantaged students in Texas (ie, students eligible for federal education funding).  

Source:
Dawn Buckingham 2014 - 2016 Personal Financial Statements Filed with Texas Ethics Commission

​

2014 - Undisclosed Conflict of Interest Violation

• Buckingham is appointed by Lt Governor David Dewhurst to the Texas Sunset Commission that was tasked with consideration of reforms to the Texas Workforce Commission to protect veterans and other students from abusive profiteering by the for-profit career businesses in Texas. At a December 2014 hearing, Buckingham twice lobbied the Commission as a sitting member to weaken accountability reforms on the for-profit career industry.

Source:
Texas Sunset Commission Hearing – 12/10/14 
(Buckingham's remarks begin at 1:34:00 and continue past the 1:50:00 mark.)

2015 - Candidate Resume Fraud Begins

• The Veterans Education Success organization released a national study showing how for-profit universities were taking advantage of veterans and other students with expensive and bogus college degrees that did not qualify them for jobs. Specially mentioned in the Veterans Education Success study were college degrees in Texas offered by NAU while Buckingham served on its Board of Governors. 
• To distance herself from NAU's scandalous connection to charges of predatory marketing, fraud and exploitation of veteran and GI bill education money, Buckingham resigns from its Board of Governors just two months prior to launching her State Senate Campaign. She then purposely omits her involvement with NAU on all of her campaign material.

Source:
"The GI Bill Pays for Degrees That Do Not Lead To a Job";
Dawn Buckingham 2016 Personal Financial Statement Filed with Texas Ethics Commission;
dawnbuckingham.com

2016 Primary-Candidate Resume Fraud Undetected in Primary

Buckingham’s resume fraud goes undetected in the March 1st primary despite the fact that 72% of the contributions and loans in her State Senate campaign came from stockholders and/or board members of NAU including a $100,000 contribution from her father-in-law who is also Chairman of NAU.

2016 Runoff- Candidate Resume Fraud Exposed In Runoff

• Buckingham's campaign resume fraud would have likely gone unnoticed in the runoff too, but for a question by a veterans organization this past April and an investigation by the Austin-based Quorum Report.  
• Since having her NAU Board position exposed, Buckingham has refused to provide an explanation or requested information to the press or with concerned veterans organizations.
• Buckingham has also refused to make public how much compensation, stock, and profit she has accumulated over the last ten years from National American University.
• According to a May 2, 2016 KVUE-TV investigative report, National American University has only a 25% graduate rate and its students have an average debt of $34,486. To put that in perspective, the graduation rate at the University of Texas is 79 percent and its students have an average debt of $22,165.

Source:
Dawn Buckingham Campaign Finance Reports Filed with Texas Ethics Commission;
http://www.national.edu/sec-filings/;
Senate candidate Buckingham under scrutiny for ties to "predatory" for-profit college;
KVUE Defenders Investigation: For-profit universities