Plan Commission Rejects For-Profit Nursing School
Unanimous decision sets up high-stakes council vote, possible court challenge.
Honey Creek Corporate Center IV, 9000 W. Chester St. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.
A proposed zoning change for a west-side business park has become the latest front as education advocates battle to keep for-profit colleges and their alleged predatory practices from entering Milwaukee.
Arizona College of Nursing wants to open its first Wisconsin location at the Honey Creek Corporate Center, a four-building office complex near Interstate 94 and S. 84th Street. And despite substantial public opposition at a City Plan Commission meeting Monday, it appeared the college would be allowed to open.
City officials cautioned the City Plan Commission that, legally, they should consider only matters related to land use. The Department of City Development recommended that the formal request, to add “college” as a permitted use, was appropriate and recommended the commission approve the matter. “A college use is very similar to many of the other currently existing approved uses in the [zoning designation], which include other educational uses that are already permitted and it’s also consistent with the mix of uses that are generally appropriate in a modern office park. It’s also permitted in all of the city’s commercial districts, and generally in our downtown zoning districts,” said planning manager Sam Leichtling. He said prior education tenants, which includes Lakeland University, have operated from the complex without issue and that it may have been an oversight that the zoning change wasn’t brought up in the past.
But after an hour of public testimony, the plan commission took the unexpected step of unanimously recommending the Common Council reject the zoning change.
None of the commissioners explained why they were voting against it. Tarik Moody and Ranell Washington motioned for it to be “placed on file,” a move that forwards the request to the Common Council with the recommendation it be rejected.
The move sets up what is expected to be a contentious vote before the Common Council and, potentially, a legal challenge to follow. And even if the city were to successfully reject the school’s move to the business park, Arizona College of Nursing could still find its way into Milwaukee via another location.
Before any testimony was taken, deputy city attorney Todd Farris told the commission that the schools were “heavily regulated” by the state and needed an annual license. “It’s our opinion that the city doesn’t have regulatory jurisdiction over the Arizona College of Nursing. We can’t try to regulate their business operations,” said the attorney.
The property is owned by an affiliate of Greywolf Partners. Representatives said colleges have operated from the location for two decades, and the city has already issued building permits for the latest college. An occupancy permit triggered the zoning change issue, which they described as only a matter of clarity.
Opponents of the college, many of whom have connections to Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC), that spoke against the proposal included former American Federation of Teachers, Local 212 president Michael Rosen, former union vice president and MATC professor Charlie Dee, current union president Lisa Conley, registered nurse Tracey Schwerdtfeger and Milwaukee Chapter president of the National Black Nurses Association Edna Hudson-Kinzey.
“The city attorney’s office has argued that we should honor [Arizona College’s] request to protect the taxpayers, but the students that are going to be preyed on by this college are also city taxpayers. Arizona’s owners are not. This project will impose a heavy cost on taxpayers, increase poverty, domestic violence, alcoholism, drug addiction, child abuse, homelessness and an increase in social services to address those social pathologies. All of those will be born by the students and the taxpayers,” said Rosen, describing the high dropout rate at the college.
Several of the speakers cited the fraud lawsuit filed by students at Arizona’s Dallas school and past failures of for-profit schools in Milwaukee. Bryant & Stratton College and Everest College operated in and around Downtown. Stanford Brown College and ITT Tech operated in nearby suburbs. Everest led the way in public criticism, with elected officials and education leaders attacking the school’s poor track record and high student debt loads.
Only Owen Driscoll, a senior at Rufus King High School, argued land-use aspects of the proposal, although without specifics. Driscoll said the commission’s pushback on a S. 27th Street proposal in late 2023 resulted in the owner pledging to avoid certain kinds of tenants and Driscoll suggested the same thing could happen at Honey Creek.
The college, not affiliated with the University of Arizona system, offers a three-year bachelor’s degree program with an annual tuition price in excess of $20,000 annually.
As Urban Milwaukee reported in October, the school would open a 23,557-square-foot space at Honey Creek Corporate Center IV, 9000 W. Chester St. “There is no actual medical work or activities,” says a submitted operation plan. Clinical training would take place at off-site facilities, some well outside of Milwaukee County.
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Related Legislation: File 231146
Yep, just what we need, a new, blood-sucking for-profit “school” that preys on the poor and feasts on Pell grants and guaranteed student loans!
“…battle to keep for-profit colleges and their alleged predatory practices from entering Milwaukee.” As if the extortion for tax money by the Bucks, Brewers, and most developers are not predatory? Non-union stores. I have no love for these kinds of schools but this is hypocrisy at its best. Give me a break!
For-profit post-secondary schools are proven predators! They rarely benefit more than themselves while leaving students holding life-long debt and often no degree, especially when the for-profits close down before students can graduate They are not the answer for dealing with nursing, teacher, and other career shortages
What we need is to prop up and encourage those students to attend dollar-wise community colleges and tech schools in the state for their first two years and then make it easier to transition to our great colleges and universities in the state when needed.
We also need to provide training for those high school students with more dual credit HS coursework/training so they have a headstart on a career before they even graduate high school. Business/high school partnerships also are a proven win win for dealing with shortages in the trades.