When you put the words “for” and “profit” in front of “education,” the word “exploitation” surely follows. The more I read about for-profit colleges, the more this proverb proves itself true.
Today, for-profit higher education is a $23 billion industry, dominated by powerhouses like Apollo Group, ITT Technical Institute and DeVry University.
The implementation of for-profit schools in the American higher education system takes an already scandalous system and turns it into an all out racket — a racket that preys on first-generation college students, minorities and taxpayers alike. @@http://www.apollogrp.edu/@@ @@http://www.itt-tech.edu/programs/@@ @@http://information.devry.edu/choose-devry?vc=166085&WT.mc_id=166085&WT.srch=1&version=08&agid=0075×20610&sc_1=0075S007972GGDMB&sc_2=2d355b1d-c91d-b249-bbd8-00007b6fce7f&gclid=CP_D6biC86gCFQYGbAodCFxZUg@@
Leave me a loan
Just how are these schools so profitable when public colleges and students are both facing serious financial crises?
Student loan default rates are skyrocketing, public universities are scrambling to find funding from financially distraught economies, and yet, Apollo Group, the nations largest for-profit college, racked up $4.5 billion in revenue last fiscal year. What’s going on here?
When for-profit colleges recruit, they don’t look for the “best and brightest,” the most financially stable, or the most capable of making good decisions.
They look for the poor, the undereducated, the first-generation student, the minority, the war veteran or anyone else who is capable of getting big financial aid handouts.
According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, while only 25 percent of college students across the nation come from households that have annual incomes below $22,000, 46 percent of for-profit college students come from households with incomes below $22,000.
Students at this income level have the highest access to Pell Grants and student loans, which make up 88 percent of University of Phoenix’s revenue. @@http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/the-color-of-money/2011/05/18/AFrw8h6G_story.html@@
These for-profit behemoths are hugely profitable because, well, tax payers fund them.
Aiding the underprivileged?
Though it could sound as though these schools are giving underprivileged students a shot at a higher education who otherwise wouldn’t be able to (if this were true, I’d be all for for-profit schools), the graduation rates for students that attend for-profit colleges is a measly 22 percent.
That means 78 percent of students attending for-profit colleges are at a high risk of perpetuating their poverty via student loan debt without a degree or a job to work it off.
Nice.
Doom by default
According to those who graduate from for-profit colleges, they have a median debt of $31,190, which is much more than the average median of $17,040 at private, nonprofit institutions and $7,960 at public colleges @@http://www.americablog.com/2011/05/for-profit-colleges-fight-back-against.html@@. For-profit colleges have no interest in caring about students’ ability to payback a loan because they’ve already received their funds from the government.
Forty-six percent of all money loaned to students at two- and four-year for-profit colleges in 2008@@http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/12/profit-college-loan-fail@@ eventually went into default.
In fact, for-profit college students make up just 11 percent of the student population, but account for 26 percent of student loans and 44 percent of federal student loan defaults. @@http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2011/02/04/for-profit-data/@@
Who’s being oppressed by these schools?
Minorities, taxpayers, veterans and pretty much every underrepresented population. Forty-six percent of students at for-profit schools are black or Latino.
Sixty-nine percent of the students at for-profit schools are women.
Taxpayers make up most of their funding — everyone has something to lose to these schools.
A grand scam
For-profit schools are sharks lurking in academic waters, preying on taxpayers and underpriviledged students. They don’t care about their students’ well-being, society’s well-being or anything that strays too far from their ultimate goal of racking in government money.
When a college spends more money on advertising than it does on the actual implementation of its education, you should know something is wrong.@@http://chronicle.com/article/Who-Are-the-Undergraduates-/123916/@@
@@http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_03/b4211018017031.htm@@
@@http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/12/profit-college-loan-fail@@
@@http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2011/02/04/for-profit-data/@@