See also: Christopher R. Beha's fantastic piece 'Leveling the Field: What I learned from for-profit education' in Harper's Oct. '11.
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Barbarians in the Ivory Tower
America's for-profit colleges use students in their greedy quest for federal bucks -- then leave them holding the debt.
Congress' shrillest voices on waste refuse to even look at the industry. Despite sitting on the Senate committee examining for-profit fraud, Rand Paul, R-Ky., has expressed no curiosity about this money pit. Nor have fellow committee members Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and deficit hawk John McCain, R-Ariz.. Not one responded to repeated interview requests for this story.
President Obama has stepped into the breach, though with timidity. In July, the Department of Education made it once again unequivocally illegal to base salespeople's pay on enrollment. But other reforms were so watered down as to be meaningless.
ILLUSTRATION BY VLAD ALVAREZ
Suzanne Lawrence
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Taxpayers probably should be thankful Obama did anything at all. At hearings last year, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, called it the most intense lobbying campaign he'd seen in his 32 years in Washington.
To truly appreciate how weak the final regulations were, consider this: The day they were revealed, for-profit stocks soared. The stock prices of EDMC and ITT Tech in particular increased by 20 percent. In one day.
The government ignores the problem at the country's peril. Total student loan debt, now more than $1 trillion, has surpassed credit card debt. These burdens will limit students' ability to contribute to our consumer economy for years to come.
Worse, unlike an underwater mortgage, Congress has made it illegal for people to walk away from student loans they can't pay. The debt will follow them for the rest of their lives.
"This is basically a parasitic industry that is preying upon not just some of the most vulnerable members of our society, but the best of these most vulnerable members, people who listen to the rhetoric we feed them and who are actually attempting to better themselves," Nassirian says. "This is an industry that takes people's hopes and dreams and cashes them out."
And they won't stop until they've emptied the till.
17 comments
As long as people stay dumb, they will continue to be exploited. I tried to warn one of my students at a local community college not to go through with her plan to enroll in one of these outfits and gave her a legit and less costly alternative, the online program at CSUDH. You know what? She was so pissed at my *negativity* that she dropped my class!
Agreed. One of the most well written pieces on this topic that I've seen. This is a topic that the public needs to know more about, and hopefully you've informed people of these practices and prevented a bad decision on their part. Kudos to Chris Parker and the LA Weekly team.
Am pleasantly surprised that LA Weekly, noted for such recent Pulitzer-worthy writings as "10 best LA clubs that are relatively STD free" and "how to be drunk and avoid the DUI checkpoints this weekend," managed to write a thorough, well written article. This should be published in the Times.
.@alexiscarra nearly $30 BILLION in taxes wasted, preying on wounded Vets, poor & desperate aspiring students. Congress doesn't care
1 Like
Everest wanted a ton of information about me before I could ask one question: How much? Salesman called for weeks and the only answer I got was questions, vague promises and "come in for a tour." The part of the article that stopped me in my tracks was the role of the United States Congress. I take home less than $1200 per month and I think anyone in Congress who regards $30 billion dollars as a sum not worth their trouble should be recalled.
I was actually recruited by one of the Art Institute colleges back in my time at Santa Monica College. At the last minute, my parents made me decline my signing up with them. Based on what I've heard AND this article, I seem to have dodged a bullet.
It's sad that one has little access to colleges that are affordable and actually provide an education for the field one seeks. These for-profit colleges are taking advantage of people who really want to work to change their lives. Education, of all things, has become a minefield that people have to duck and weave through, and that's sad.
Its some bullshit that you throw this ridiculous story about how unscrupulous for-profit schools are, and then your story is being sponsored by? CONCORDE CAREER COLLEGE. Get out of your glass house, LA WEEKLY!
1 Like
How do you leave out our own Senator Feinstein?
Richard Blum, husband of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), is an investor in two for-profit college companies – Career Education Corporation and ITT Educational Services. In her 2010 financial disclosure, Feinstein listed Career Education holdings valued at $2.16 million to $4.55 million. The couple’s stake in ITT Educational Services was valued at $1.45 million to $3.12 million.
@louispfreely And Career Education Corporation owns the California Culinary Academy, which has faced a class action lawsuit stemming from recruiter misrepresentations of career placement rates. Sixty Minutes did a piece a while back about a similar situation at a C.E.C.- owned fashion school.
Nobody tells you that student loans don't even go away with bankruptcy.
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