So, education. It is obviously very important to me.
Students from for-profit educational institutions are way more likely to default on loans, as shown here.
I was greatly interested in the first online reading because I believe that for-profit colleges such as University of Phoenix and Devry University are quackeries in the fact that many colleges are no longer accepting their credits for transfer from those schools. After checking the University of Phoenix's Wikipedia page, I found out that the school was fined $6 million in 2000 for not including study group meetings as part of their curriculum. And later, in 2010, the Phoenix and Philadelphia branches were found to be engaging in deceptive enrollment practices and fraudulent solicitation of FAFSA funds.
It hurts to see that people of lower socioeconomic statuses are being hooked into these forms of education, because we can see through the reading "Education Trust Subprime Report" that fewer than 75% of for-profit universities' students graduate within four years. If that were a statistic displayed by a non-profit or public educational institution, no one would bother to attend.
Finally, seeing all of the student debt amassed by students after having attended a for-profit institution of higher education makes me think that these places are black holes swallowing money that will never be seen or circulated again
Moving on to "For Profit Education Bubble Burst," I will admit I was unaware that the military education benefit was going towards for-profit schools. The reading explains that only 25% or so alumni from for-profit universities were paying off their student loans, versus 45% of students from non-profit universities.
It appears to me over the long run that for-profit schools have a very conservative, neo-liberal attitude about them: run a school like a business, let each do its own thing, and the students will flourish. The only problem with this that when run as businesses, many people will try harder to gain profits than educate the people enrolled in the schools.
Erin,
ReplyDeleteI feel like I missed the part about military education benefits going towards for-profit schools. That really upsets me as those benefits come from our taxes and I don't see why we should be supporting for-profit education. Especially when all the reading seems to show that it clearly won't get you the same quality of job later in life.
Erin,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your post. As with you, it upsets me to see people get sucked in with the unethical practices being used by U of Phoenix and Kaplan. The costs are extremely high and they target a specific population in order to make a profit. Its shameful that the priority is profit instead of quality and it reflects the low graduation rates.
Erin,
ReplyDeleteI'm willing to go a step further and say that for-profit colleges don't care if the students flourish. The only thing they care about students doing is getting enrolled so that they can get money from them. Unlike public and non-profit private schools, for-profits have no incentive for their students to do well, as of right now. That might change when people realize they can't get an education there or can get a better education at a lower price somewhere else. However, the for-profit schools marketing campaign has done such a good job of making lower income, military etc. people feel like they can't go anywhere else that they enroll in these schools without fulling knowing the consequences. Something needs to be done about it.
Erin,
ReplyDeleteYour opened my mind to a lot about the education system. I've always thought of school as something that was a personal endeavor, but now realize that there is a real moral aspect to deciding where my education comes from. I realize after reading your post that public school is a much more conscious option for all kinds of reasons. thanks.
I'm going to agree with Andrew on the subject of for-profit colleges and their motives. I think that the only reason a for-profit college would want a student to succeed is for advertising purposes, or else in the hopes of future endorsements. It's exploitation in my opinion. I don't think it should be legal to attempt to sell someone the least expensive education you can for the purpose of profit. But this is exactly what our economy promotes. Some things are just too important to be allowed in to the business world.