UD says: More! More!
I know Goldman Sachs (which owns a big chunk of this lovely industry) is a fatter target, but we’re about universities here at University Diaries, and college stories don’t get any bigger, or more vomit-worthy, than the for-profit college story, with its CEOs taking tens of millions of dollars a year from our tax money and from poor people.
The New York Times and other newspapers have editorialized. But public radio is hitting the hardest, featuring not only a long interview on the Kojo Nnamdi Show about this national scandal, but also an interview with Daniel Golden (UD thanks Dirk for the link) on Fresh Air. A highlight:
I visited homeless shelters where for-profit colleges were seeking students… Often you’re dealing with people whose families do not include college graduates and do not have a lot of sophistication about the system and may just have seen an ad on a website or a late-night television program, called up on a whim and got themselves signed up for federal student loans almost before they knew what happened.
May 12th, 2011 at 2:14PM
http://chronicle.com/blogs/brainstorm/the-academy-shrugged/34965
May 12th, 2011 at 7:46PM
At least those for-profits places pay taxes
May 13th, 2011 at 7:08AM
Mediocritech Community College, which is as non-profit as they come, was recently profiled for trolling homeless shelters for students.
May 13th, 2011 at 10:22AM
In my state, only half the students at State U. pay any tuition at all. Not because of loans — they’re just not charged tuition. The taxpayers are charged the tuition, though.
As it would be hard to default on something that you are not charged to begin with, it follows that default rates at for-profit places are going to look bad in comparison to the non-profit places.
It’s time that we looked at the big picture on school funding, graduation rates, and the employment prospects of graduates. Public and Private. The D of E may just have opened up a big ole can of worms here.
May 13th, 2011 at 11:07AM
I agree, gassman; but note that the primary and secondary schools at issue in this post are public. No tuition.