Acorns and trees..... The closure of Vermont’s debt-burdened Burlington College brings to mind the famous quote from Britain’s legendary Conservative Party prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, that the real problem with socialist governments is that “they always run out of other people’s money.” Coralee A. Holm, the college’s dean of operations and advancement, released a statement claiming that the institution had “struggled under the crushing weight of the debt” related to a $10 million purchase of property — a purchase made in 2010, under the leadership of former Burlington College president, Jane Sanders, the wife of the socialist U. S. senator and Democratic presidential contender, Bernie Sanders. During her seven-year tenure as president of the college, from 2004 to 2011, Jane Sanders pledged to double the student enrollment by spending millions of dollars of borrowed money on a beautiful new campus — 33 acres along the bank of Lake Champlain that was purchased in 2010 from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington, Vt. President Sanders predicted that the new campus would attract more students and donations from alumni. It didn’t. The next year, Sanders took her $200,000 severance package and left Burlington College in such dire straits that by July 2014, the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) put the institution on probation for not meeting its financial-resources standard. The Chronicle of Higher Education concluded that since the Federal Department of Education allows a college only two years of probation, Burlington College would have lost its accreditation in January 2017. On May 13, 2016, the Burlington College Board of Trustees voted unanimously to close the college effectively at the end of this month. Burlington College is facing allegations of loan fraud during Jane Sanders’s tenure as the school’s president. While the purchase of property by a college administrator is certainly not evidence of socialism, the way Jane Sanders was able to gain approval for the loan from the State of Vermont Educational and Health Buildings Finance Agency raises questions. In fact, Jane Sanders did such a good job of convincing loan officers that Burlington College would be a good risk that the school is now facing allegations of loan fraud during her tenure as Burlington College president. On January 10, 2016, a request for an investigation into federal bank fraud was filed with the United States attorney for the District of Vermont in behalf of Wendy Wilton, a Catholic member of the Immaculate Heart of Mary parish in Rutland, Vt., and other aggrieved Vermont parishioners. Wilton and the parishioners allege in the complaint that the sale of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington headquarters to Burlington College entailed federal loan fraud. So, ya, Bernie is even more of a leftie - may the good Lord help us all if that nit-wit gets elected to any position..... Source - Mrs. Sanders Promised Other People’s Money Would Pay for Burlington College. It Didn’t., by Anne Hendershott, National Review
