No good guys in the fight over for-profit colleges

[Geee]

Washington Examiner:

For a case study in the tawdry and twisted world of Washington policymaking and lobbying, you can't do much better than the current fight over the subsidies and regulations for for-profit colleges. Behind every argument is an ulterior motive, around every corner is a conflict of interest, and in every pocket there is cash procured through government policy supposed to serve the public good.

We're not talking here about Ivies or Stanford or Duke -- those schools may be expensive and private, but they are still operated as non-profit entities (and taxed accordingly). For-profit colleges often are publicly traded corporations (or subsidiaries), whose products are education and a degree. The University of Phoenix and Kaplan University are two of the best-known for-profits. The industry fills a niche by serving "non-traditional" students, such as parents and older immigrants. The clientele is similar to that of community colleges, but the for-profits typically offer more convenient campuses (University of Phoenix's DC-area locations are all near highway exits and metro stops) and more online learning. Partly because of the makeup of the student body, and partly because of aggressive marketing, students at the for-profits (including both graduates and drop-outs) default on their student loans about four times as much as other college students.

But don't confuse "for-profit" with "capitalist." Without federal subsidies in the form of Pell grants and federal loan guarantees, the for-profits might not exist. At the very least, they would be much smaller. About 87 percent of the revenue at the biggest for-profits comes from federal taxpayers, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. They belong to a class of company that I call Subsidy Sucklers.

[Rokke]

"But don't confuse "for-profit" with "capitalist." Without federal subsidies in the form of Pell grants and federal loan guarantees, the for-profits might not exist. At the very least, they would be much smaller. About 87 percent of the revenue at the biggest for-profits comes from federal taxpayers, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. They belong to a class of company that I call Subsidy Sucklers."

 

Kind of a poorly written article, but it revealed some things I didn't know about schools like the University of Phoenix. Has anyone ever taken classes at a school like that? I wonder if the level of education is worth anything. I am somewhat familiar with more traditional community colleges. Especially in core course academics, they are a great value. They also seem to employ instructors with real world credentials rather than paper degree credentials. I thought places like University of Phoenix were similar. Maybe not.