Dear Commons Community,
The New York Times is making another call for greater regulation of for-profit colleges and universities. Following on the heels of its editorial last week, today’s editorial cites the following developments as evidence of an industry preying on people more so than helping them.
“The last several weeks have not been particularly restful for the lucrative for-profit education industry.
A federal judge upheld the Department of Education’s right to regulate unscrupulous for-profit schools that leave students with big debts and valueless credentials.
A Senate committee released a blistering report showing that many of these schools pocket huge profits, even though most students leave without degrees.
A study from the National Bureau of Economic Research found that people who started in programs awarding an associate degree — a big slice of the student population — reaped significant economic rewards with degrees from public and nonprofit institutions. Those with degrees or certificates from for-profits did not.
This is all sobering news. The for-profit sector is growing rapidly and now consumes about one-fourth of all federal education loans and grants. It is essential that the federal government tighten its rules to make sure that taxpayers — not to mention the students themselves — get their money’s worth.”
How aggressive the federal government will pursue this depends entirely upon who is elected in November. If President Barack Obama is re-elected, we can expect tougher scrutiny and attempts at oversight by the U.S. Department of Education. If Mitt Romney is elected, we will see a complete hands-off attitude and let the market reign.
Tony
This is a tough subject, but I agree with the calls for better regulation. There are good schools out there, and unfortunately there are poor schools as well.
The schools in question will charge ridiculous tuition rates causing the students to amass crushing student debt loads. Furthermore, the programs generally do not have good job prospects or well paying positions.
Once graduated, the students can’t find jobs, or the jobs they do find do not pay enough to cover the payments on the student debt. This in turn just hurts everybody in the long run if the students default on their debt, the taxpayer picks up the tab.
I feel that by assisting and improving the delivery of positive for profit educational providers and degree programs, we can eliminate the schools that offer the poor programs that set students up for failure.
This would be a good move for everyone in the long run.
Thanks Tony!