For-Profit Colleges Use Fed $ To Fight Against Accountabilty

AN EDUCATION IN INFLUENCE
For-Profit Colleges Use Federal Money To Fight Against Accountability

After a lobbying and campaign finance blitz totaling millions of dollars over the past year, the industry appeared to be on the verge of getting a special provision in the budget bill that would block increased government oversight of their schools. The matter was still not decided, they insisted.

“We need you to make calls this weekend!” urged the letter from the group to its more than 1,600 member colleges. “Members and staff are meeting over the weekend to finalize the details of the [bill]. We encourage you TODAY and throughout this weekend to contact the offices of your Congressman/Senators urging them to support inclusion of the … amendment in the final package.”

As the stakes for this fast-growing industry rise, so have the dollars spent on an expansive lobbying campaign to ensure the government money keeps flowing.

Some of the largest publicly traded college corporations receive nearly 90 percent of their revenues from federal student aid programs. While government money fuels increased enrollments and record profits, the industry has poured increasing amounts of those proceeds into an unprecedented effort to preempt the rules through greater influence in Washington.

In other words, an industry that derives a vast majority of its revenue from federal funding is actively using that money to fight government efforts for accountability.

The last-minute scramble earlier this month was only the latest chapter in the industry’s yearlong battle against increased federal oversight of their schools.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/2 ... 53363.html


We don' need no steenkin' accountability where profits are concerned.... (That sounds so familiar, somehow...)

Part of the problem with this for-profit trade schools is they get kids to sign up for degrees in fields that don't have any jobs right now like construction but they lie and tell the applicants that their graduates are getting jobs right away. Or even worse, their program doesn't have the right accreditation.
But shouldn't we hold liberal arts schools to the same standards? No one is going to hire them with a degree in women's studies, or Russian history, or fine arts.

There are some reasonably good for-profit schools out there --- then there's the junk.

Denver happens to be for-profit haven.

Both Westwood and Jones International are headquartered in Denver area.

I seem to recall that Phoenix has a few campuses in the area.

The mid-west is home to some of the largest for-profit colleges:
- Phoenix (in the NCA/HLC regiion)
- Capella (accredited by NCA/HLC)
- American International
- ITT
- DeVry
- Kaplan
(just to name a few).

More rigid standards in the region (NCA/HLC) will be in-place by 2012 --- with or without blessings from the feds.
(they've already been announced by the accrediting board).

I think the schools that will be impacted the most are the hair design schools and the massage schools. I doubt automotive technology schools will feel things, much. Nor do I think (for example) gunsmith schools will feel pressure. It's really the schools that turn out hundreds or even thousands of creditials - with little or no substance.