Jennifer Berkshire reports that Secretary Betsy DeVos has turned to a top official from the scandal-plagued for-profit higher education industry to “right-size” the Department of Education.
As the New York Times said when his appointment was announced:
“As chief compliance officer for a corporate owner of for-profit colleges, Robert S. Eitel spent the past 18 months as a top lawyer for a company facing multiple government investigations, including one that ended with a settlement of more than $30 million over deceptive student lending.”
Eitel worked for Bridgepoint Education Inc., which took over a small private college in 2005, called Ashford College. Bridgepoint turned it into a colossus of online higher education. In 2005, Ashford had 300 students. By 2010, it had more than 80,000.
Berkshire interviewed Christopher Crowley of Wayne State, who explained how the business leaders of the new enterprises turned a struggling small college into a profitable success:
Crowley: When Bridgepoint bought Franciscan in 2005, the college was going bankrupt. The total result amount of student loan money that Franciscan was taking in at that point was $3 million. But less than two years later, the school, which was now called Ashford University, was getting $81 million in federal student aid and reporting profits of $3.1 million. By 2010, Ashford University reported $216 million in profit and was receiving $613 million in federal student aid funds. Part of the reason for this was a huge drop in how much less they were spending per student. Franciscan spent about $5,000 per year, per student on instructional costs. Ashford spent just $700. That’s an 86% reduction in spending over five years. That money went to pay for lavish executive compensation as well for marketing and recruitment. By 2010, Bridgepoint was spending $211.6 million on advertising, more than any other publicly traded education company in the United States at the time.”
Ashford’s transformation into a piggy bank for investors is a story of the triumph of opportunistic capitalism fueled by greed. But it is also a story that recounts the collapse of the higher learning. And one of The architects of that transformation will guide Betsy DeVos, who has no managerial experience, as she reorganizes the U.S. Department of Education.
We know what the Education Capitalists are trying to sell us because it’s the same thing Capitalists have already sold us in every other sector of society. They want to make education a consumer commodity, where the quality of education you get is proportional to the quantity of wealth you have — and no amount of “Education Stamps” in the form of vouchers is going to change that.
I no longer believe young people should take advice or seek information from the US Department of Education. They’ll get brutally ripped off.
We’re talking about 18 year olds borrowing a boat load of money. They need help.They are almost guaranteed to make poor decisions. I have no idea where they will find it, since all these adults they’re paying seem wholly captured and corrupt.
Lambs to slaughter. It’s a tragedy. They’ll load them up with debt like pack mules and then blame them when they can’t pull the weight.
I compare this to my own experience 25 years ago, where I was given free access to community college and really affordable tuition at a state university and it seems horribly unfair. I had a huge advantage. I didn’t start in a hole. Older people should admit we had this advantage and stop blaming young people. It was easier for us.
Diane,
You’ve reported about DeVos’ investment in pseudoscience (and tech) that harms young people by making them think they’re getting smarter when they’re not. Now, the Washington Post has too.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2017/05/26/betsy-devos-neurocore/?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-f%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.12ba34de467f
Is it time yet for the majority to wake up and listen to Tomas Jefferson on the Responsibility of Vigilance?
Viewed the link. Thank-you, Lloyd. So TRUE. NOT funny that our elected officials have turned away their ears to “the Common” person’s concerns. We’ve been “paltered” for profits.
George Washington said “Government is like fire. A dangerous servant, and a terrible master”. Jefferson said “When government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.”
Yes, and the Kremlin’s Agent Orange, that malignant narcissist in the White House, is a tyrant who only respects strong men like Hitler and Sadam Hussein.
5 Controversial Dictators and Leaders Donald Trump Has Praised
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/controversial-dictators-leaders-donald-trump-praised/story?id=40373481
Trumps Long Admiration for Hitler – Kept His Speeches by Beside, not the Bible.
https://trofire.com/2016/06/13/trumps-long-admiration-hitler-kept-mein-keif-bedside-not-bible/
Donald Trump Has a Habit of Praising Dangerous Dictators
Step One: Rightsize Betsy out the door.
“A university with a 5.1 % completion rate, for example, seems like a failure factory. But if you understand that the goal is actually to hoover up federal money in the form of student loans while paying your executives a ton, the model makes cents. So do Bridgepoint’s investment priorities, like employing 1,700 recruiters but zero career counselors.”
And the kleptocratic beat goes on! Under Trump and DeVos exploitation of everything with potential profitability is their only measure of “success.”
When has anything in this administration NOT been klepocratic? Education Department, and everything else.
Betsy Devos should become a “member” of a “new group” called…
J ustice A fter I diotic “Leadership” … better known as… JAI”L” 🙂 !!!!
DeVos is to education as Dracula is the our necks.
The right size for the federal Department of Education is ZERO. This republic functioned for over a century and a half, without a federal education department. Education should be a responsibility of the states and municipalities. The funding for education is already over 90% provided by the states/municipalities.
Phase out the Dept of Ed, and return as many of its functions to the states as is possible.