Greg's Corner

For-profit college closes leaving students in debt without degrees

While we won’t mention any of the institutions by name, we’ve all seen the advertisements by for-profit colleges on TV. They all seem to make grandiose of promises of a better future with an almost guaranteed promise of employment once you graduate. Some even promise laptops or tablets just for being admitted to the school.  Since many of these schools are only in the business of making money once could assume that they probably don’t reject many applicants. They’re also seen as predatory as they mostly target low-income students and veterans while costing at least four times more than a community college which tends to have better education programs.

These for-profit schools are largely funded by federal student loans which the majority of students end up defaulting in without ever getting a degree. One such college chain known as the Education Corporation of America just went bankrupt leaving 20,000 students without degrees and college credits that can’t be transferred to most other schools. Another problem with schools like this is that they’re accredited by agencies that are themselves for-profit agencies.

During the Obama Administration, a number of these accreditation agencies had their credentials revoked but had them reinstated by current Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. If that seems oddly familiar to you it’s because it’s exactly what FCC Chairman Ajit Pai did with net neutrality, putting the power and profit back in the hands of the telecoms. While we’re not against any company making a profit we are opposed to profits being made at the expense of the less fortunate and the current administration seems to be all about making profits for their pet industries by any means necessary.