By Mark Pitsch
mpitsch@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal
By Michael Hayman, The C-J
Keith Hagan of Sellersburg, Ind., who left the Decker College program, said, "From the get-go it was nothing but lies."
By Michael Clevenger, The C-J
The Kentucky Board for Proprietary Education, which licenses trade schools, has launched an investigation of Decker College.
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Keith Hagan quit a steady job in March and borrowed $6,000 to enter Decker College's new electrician training program, which the school promised would deliver "the highest level of proficiency" in the field.
Now Hagan has left school and is working two jobs to support his wife and toddler after learning that the program is not approved for state licensing of electricians.
"I feel sometimes I'm on the verge of a nervous breakdown," said Hagan, 27, of Sellersburg, Ind. "From the get-go it was nothing but lies."
Other students who are military veterans say the for-profit Louisville college, which opened in 1989, misled them into believing they could use Department of Veterans Affairs benefits for the 10-month electrical program.
Gerald Woodcox, Decker's president, said there was "some misinterpretation" of recruitment materials by students, but he acknowledged some "reasonable complaints."
The Kentucky Board for Proprietary Education, which licenses trade schools, has launched an investigation of Decker and this month turned the case over to the state attorney general's office.
The Better Business Bureau is looking into complaints by Decker students.
Charlie Mattingly, president of the Better Business Bureau covering Louisville, Western Kentucky and Southern Indiana, said he has concerns "that some students and prospective students are being misled, perhaps."
A Decker brochure says graduates of its electrical training are "highly skilled employee(s) certified and accredited in the shortest time possible." The brochure does not say the program is approved for the training needed to get a Kentucky electrician's license.
TO FILE A COMPLAINT
Kentucky State Board for Proprietary Education
P.O. Box 1360
Frankfort, KY 40602
Phone: (502) 564-3296, Ext. 227
Web: www.state.ky.us/
agencies/finance/
occupations/proprietaryed/
complaintform.pdf
Better Business Bureau
844 S. Fourth St.
Louisville, KY 40203
Phone: (502) 583-6546
Web: www.ky-in.bbb.org
Federal Trade Commission
600 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.
CRC-240
Washington, D.C. 20580
Phone: (877) 382-4357
Web: https://rn.ftc.gov/pls/
dod/wsolcq$.startup?
Z_ORG_CODE=PU01
Decker claims in a lawsuit that former instructor Brian Vandenburg, a member of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 369, intentionally encouraged 20 students to break their school contracts.
"Decker has a reasonable expectation of economic gain from the continued tuition payment of its students," the suit says, putting losses attributable to student withdrawals at $109,000.
But Vandenburg denied the allegations, saying, "If I felt everything was on the up and up, I would've just worked there."
Woodcox said he is willing to refund the $10,700 tuition for students who enrolled in March and April, when the electrical training program was launched. He said the school already has resolved some complaints, but he would not go into detail.
The program is still enrolling students.
New state law
Since 2003, more than 600 students have enrolled in Decker electrical programs in Indianapolis, Atlanta and Jacksonville, said Woodcox. He owns Decker with his brother, Jeffrey Woodcox of Louisville, and the New York investment firm of former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld.
In 2003, the Kentucky legislature passed a law requiring for the first time that electricians have a state license, said Frank Dempsey, legal counsel for the Kentucky Office of Housing, Buildings and Construction, which regulates construction codes.
Unlicensed assistants can work in the trade but must be supervised by licensed electricians who are ultimately responsible for the safety of the wiring, he said.
The state law requires electricians to pass a national test, have four years of supervised on-the-job training, and to either have an additional two years of on-the-job training or have passed a training program approved by the construction office to get a license, he said.
Decker's program is not approved and has not yet applied to the state, Dempsey said.
Students said that without state approval, the Decker program left them no closer to state licenses than they were before they enrolled.
"They just charged $10,000 for a nine-month program you didn't get nothing out of," said Randy Clark, 21, of New Castle, Ky.
Woodcox said Decker's program provides electrical training to those who don't want to go through the licensing process, and he is not sure if it will seek state approval.
"Our program is not so that you will in four years become a licensed electrician," he said.
Training
According to students and a Decker catalog, its electrical program holds classes every weekday for four weeks.
Then students are placed with an electrical company to get hands-on experience during the week for nine months while returning to the classroom on Saturdays.
Students said Decker's classroom work was hurried and that not all students were placed with an electrical company after four weeks.
"They rush everything and give you an open-book test and tell you what to highlight in the book that's on the test and where to even look in the book," said former student Jamie Blackburn, 27, of Elizabethtown, Ky.
"You learn a lot, but you learn at such a fast pace that you can't remember once you're working," said Daniel Hill, 20, of Custer, Ky., another former student.
Woodcox defended the instruction, saying it was sufficient to get aspiring electricians into the field.
Don Whyte, president of the National Center for Construction Education and Research, a Gainesville, Fla.-based group that promotes educational curricula for construction trades, said the Decker training model is emerging as an alternative to traditional apprenticeships. It shifts the cost of the instruction to students from employers, he said.
But union and nonunion construction officials — who operate multiyear apprenticeships approved by the state and the U.S. Department of Labor — questioned Decker's accelerated approach.
"The idea that you could train an electrician in nine months is ludicrous," said Scotty Pulliam of IBEW Local 369. "Bad wiring kills people."
Mary Jo Morton, education director for Associated Builders and Contractors of Kentuckiana Inc., said that Decker approached the group as a partner for its electrical program before starting it.
"We wouldn't touch it with a 10-foot pole," she said, saying the program offers only basics and doesn't prepare students for a career as an electrician.
Veterans complain
A seven-year Army veteran, Blackburn said he enrolled with Decker after school officials said he could pay for the electrical program with VA benefits. School promotional materials said Decker and its programs are approved by the VA.
But Blackburn said the VA denied his request, and state and federal VA officials said Decker's electrical program isn't approved. "They made it sound like it was a golden egg just waiting for you to take it," Blackburn said.
Woodcox acknowledged that promotional material mentioning VA approval "might have been confusing" to students. He urged Blackburn and other veterans to contact him directly if they have complaints.
"There is always the potential for a misunderstanding," he said. "And what we stand by is that we will work through those misunderstandings on a case-by-case basis."
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