For years, for-profit “colleges” have been criticized for false promises and preying on veterans, low-income students, and students of color. Congressional efforts to rein them in have been stymied by their high-priced lobbyists from both parties. They pay protection money and continue to fleece their students, many of whom Re saddled with debt and no education or job prospects.
Corinthian Colleges was one of the biggest and worst. It recently collapsed in bankruptcy, despite the US Department of Education’s bailout.
Thousands of students were left holding the bag, and they are threatening not to repay their student loans for a worthless education.
Bottom line: For-profit colleges should be prohibited or closely regulated. Instead they ate left free to rip off unausoecting students and to continue their predatory practices.
Don’t expect any change during the remaining days of this administration. Undersecretary of Education Ted Mitchell is in charge if this issue, and he is a supporter of for-profit education. When he was chosen, he was CEO of NewSchools Venture Fund, which helps build charter chains and advocates for for-profit education.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on The Academe Blog and commented:
From Diane Ravitch:
Accountability is for peons …
…and accountants, except in the case of the latter, there is a space: account ability
“Reform Account ability”
“Account ability of accountants”
Is what they’re really after
When dollars pile to mountains
Accounts will reach the rafter
How many coups could accountants count
If accountants could count coup on you?
Accountants count coup on me and you
But counting coup on accountants, too,
Is sum ding you’ll never see them do.
Accountants are no-accounts for me and you
And that sumps it up in a trickle-down world.
Accountability is for peons, not for peers.
Wait a minute SDP & Jon, I may have a little good humor on those thoughts!
Follow the money…
The colleges are just so well-connected I don’t know where the will to investigate would come from.
These are just some of the congressional backers:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/07/23/for-profit-colleges-contributions-house-regulations/2579041/
It seems like state attorneys general did some work on it and the Consumer Financial Protection agency intervened at one point.
If the sheeple were paying attention the political will would come from the people’s anger over having been so badly ripped off. Politicians would be scrambling to distance themselves from these sociopathic rip-off institutions and would be throwing them under the bus as fast and as publicly as possible in order to get re-elected. But since politicians know they’ll get re-elected anyway, they have no incentive to shape up – might as well enjoy the graft while they can get it.
Screw it. Pass me the remote. Anyone know when the next “Dancing with the Stars” starts?
The colleges were heavily promoted where I live, because they were heavily promoted in lower income rural areas. The problem is there’s fragmentation- part of the business design is isolation. Students don’t talk to one another- they didn’t have the benefit of any kind of collective, cooperative action or even sharing information.
I’m a community college graduate and while we were all commuters, we did spend time together-spoke to one another, shared information. I would think that would be especially vital for low income college or “returning” students, and they were the students targeted.
Dienne,
The first word of your post holds the key to understanding it.
Also taking a hit are 21 for-profit Art Institutes most with online programs and campuses organized under one mangement. In addition to losing money, the “gainful employment” rule (ratio of loans to income after graduating) has made savvy students leery of pursuing jobs in the culinary arts, graphic deign, animation, and the like. Enrollments have dropped. Few of the entry-level positions available to graduates meet the payoff threshold for accreditation on the gainful employment rule. Faculty in these schools are often well-qualified in their specialties. This does not mean that are good teachers. Many are teaching because their own income, typically from free-lance work, is not reliably present and/or enough to live on.
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
Reblogged this on Network Schools – Wayne Gersen and commented:
This is one of the issues each Presidential candidate in BOTH parties should address…
I agree with you, Wayne. Unfortunately, their response is likely to be caveat emptor and let the market rule.
But if they’re going to push college as the official policy of the United States,, to me they assume some responsibility for addressing the huge debt people are taking on.
It’s as if a government entity were telling people over and over- “go buy a new car! You can finance it over 60 months!”
They’re turning into a sales department. I think they need some kind of organizational soul-searching. There has to be some kind of bright line between “encouraging higher education” and selling debt.
This has been known for a VERY long time. WE, the taxpayers must pay for the ineptness of our politicians in this regard. Beyond that, the students who paid way over what public colleges and universities paid could not even get a job when, if, they graduated – and with humongous debt. AND as we know, these students cannot claim bankruptcy like banks ad nauseum.
How bad can it get?
I would love to do this but I don’t get in until late on the 30th.
—————————————–From: “Diane Ravitch’s blog”
To: jtolles@charter.net Cc: Sent: Thu, 7 May 2015 16:01:32 +0000 Subject: [New post] The U.S. Department of Education Should Be Held Accountable for Failure to Regulate Predatory For-Profit Colleges
dianeravitch posted: “For years, for-profit “colleges” have been criticized for false promises and preying on veterans, low-income students, and students of color. Congressional efforts to rein them in have been stymied by their high-priced lobbyists from both parties. They pa”
Thank you – I voted for Jose too.
—————————————–From: “Diane Ravitch’s blog”
To: jtolles@charter.net Cc: Sent: Thu, 7 May 2015 16:01:32 +0000 Subject: [New post] The U.S. Department of Education Should Be Held Accountable for Failure to Regulate Predatory For-Profit Colleges
dianeravitch posted: “For years, for-profit “colleges” have been criticized for false promises and preying on veterans, low-income students, and students of color. Congressional efforts to rein them in have been stymied by their high-priced lobbyists from both parties. They pa”
Diane…it is time we stopped avoiding the real issue and get to the business of shutting down the US Department of Education. We need a national movement to get it done. The time has come. We will NEVER save education or our kids until the US DoEd is shut down and education returned to the local districts with the state playing a minor role. By refusing to address the root cause of the problem we will never stop the insanity. You have the audience and if you partnered with others we could make this happen.
See Lee Fang’s article on Corinthian’s well placed friends. Remember they’re buying their influence with money from student loas. The usual suspects: ALEC, the Chamber of Commerce, and Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS. Remember too they’re buying their influence with money from student loans.
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/05/04/bankruptcy-filing-shows-corinthian-colleges-secretly-funded-d-c-think-tanks-dark-money-election-efforts/
You’ve been providing some good links lately, Christine! Thanks!
Wait, why is everyone hating on private, for-profit “colleges?”
Corinthian and its ilk are just implementing the Common Core mantra of “College (debt) and (poverty wage) Career Ready.”
If you like for-profit “colleges,” you’ll love wholesale charter expansion, in which the Overclass gets to enjoy the deep, soul-satisfaction (and wallet-fattening) of “doing well by doing good?”