No tears from this corner for the for-profit sector in higher education.
It is losing market share and closing campuses as students figure out that the degree from a for-profit college is not entirely respectable.
John Hechinger again proves he is at the top of his game as an education writer.
He knows how to follow the money.
Remember the old days when we didn’t use terms like “market share” to talk about education?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I’m not sure all for-profit universities are alike though. I did a great deal of research before choosing mine. I avoided any that advertise (TV, radio, inserts, mailers) in anyway so, of course, I’m not “a Phoenix.” I checked with my state department of education and my school district to ensure the credits and the final degree would be accepted. There are a few online for-profit universities out there that manage to meet high standards. However the not so reputable ones have made me a bit shy of admitting that I’m doing my degree online at one of these universities.
No tears from me either… Would you like fries with your McPhD?
Let’s also not forget that these for-profit diploma mills cynically and opportunistically target low income students, saddling them with unpayable debts that cannot even be discharged in bankruptcy.
This shifting of the burden of financing of education follows upon the success of neoliberal policies to cut back state funding of higher education, casting vulnerable students intothe clutches of these profiteers.
It is good to see students and their families choosing to leave these ineffective schools.
I also agree with Shannon above, however, that there are better and worse for profit schools just like any other category of school.
Yes, let’s not worry about the kids who were already suckered in and are now deeply in debt with a worthless piece of paper (assuming they even got that far). As long as the market eventually corrects itself, what do we care about those bulldozed in the process? Let’s look forward, not backward, right?
Yep, market forces eventually take care of everything that doesn’t have to do with being a living, breathing human being.
I was, of course, making no general claims about where a decentralized market system would work well and where it would not work well.
It is good to see that at least on the narrow issue of this post, we are in agreement about the outcome.
I can remember a time before the Internet and “online education” when proprietary schools were considered a joke. I still see them this way, but more people seem eager to defend them today.