For-Profit Colleges’ Debt Disorder

[marmar]

from In These Times:




For-Profit Colleges’ Debt Disorder
As the industry whitewashes its image and fights new regulations, a leading company offloads its own sour student loans.

By Pat Garofalo


Late last month, an organization called the Coalition for Educational Success (CES) announced its intention to formulate a new code of conduct to govern for-profit higher education institutions. CES said that, in conjunction with former Govs. Ed Rendell (D-Penn.) and Thomas Kean (R-N.J.), it plans to develop standards that “will improve and ensure transparency, disclosure, training, (and) provide strong new protections for students” attending “career colleges.”

Sounds great. But what is CES and why is it proposing a higher education code of conduct right now? To understand that, one has to dive into a hotly-contested federal policy battle: the attempt by the U.S. Department of Education to implement new rules governing the for-profit college industry, which the coalition represents.

Since late last year, for-profit colleges—schools like the University of Phoenix and Devry University—have been ferociously lobbying against a new Education Department regulation (known as “gainful employment”) that would cut higher education programs off from federal dollars if too many of their students can’t find good jobs and default on their students loans. The regulation is scheduled to take effect on July 1.

“While a majority of career colleges play a vital role in training our workforce to be globally competitive, some bad actors are saddling students with debt they cannot afford in exchange for degrees and certificates they cannot use,” U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said last September. And the financial data from one of the for-profit industry’s biggest players—a company called the Education Management Corporation—shows that Duncan’s characterization is right on the mark. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/7299/for-profit_colleges_bad_debt_disorder

[rurallib]

1. fucking corporations have more ways to steal us blind while

politicians (mostly republicans) help them.