In March 2017, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos appointed Robert Eitel, a former Career Education vice president, as an advisor. In March 2019, Career Education Corporation entered into an agreement with Trident University International, an online for-profit college with approximately 4,000 students, for $35 - $44 million, and plans to merge this acquisition into American InterContinental University. In September 2019, The Capitol Forum reported that CECO schools "enjoyed an uptick in growth but have declined in quality metrics—spending on instruction, number of dropouts and bad debt all worsened, sometimes dramatically so." In March 2020, The Capitol Forum reported that the US Department of Education allowed Perdoceo and its subsidiary AIU to defer $39 million in Title IV money to avoid violating the 90/10 rule.