by David Safier
I write a lot about the potential dangers of the profit motive in K-12 schools, because my teaching experience allows me to understand how pre-college schools operate. I avoid too much discussion of higher ed because I don't know how it works from the inside.
But a few recent articles make the dangers of bottom-line, for profit education evident, where putting "asses in classes" is more important than the education provided to the students.
First case in point: At University of Phoenix, Allegations of Enrollment Abuses Persist. The article is about high pressure recruiting of students.
After federal regulators accused the University of Phoenix of systematic enrollment abuses in 2004, the school's parent company paid out nearly $10 million to resolve the allegations.
[snip]
In the years since, Phoenix cemented its stature as the nation's largest for-profit school and the single biggest recipient of federal student aid. [emphasis added] But some of the school's recruiters have continued to use high-pressure, deceptive tactics, according to a dozen current and former students and two former recruiters who spoke to ProPublica and Marketplace as part of a joint investigation.
The students said Phoenix counselors misled them about whether credits would transfer to other schools, pretended to befriend them and lied about financial aid. The recruiters said they were told to rope students in with phony claims that classes were filling fast, or by suggesting that federal grants would cover costs, even if that was uncertain.
If U of Phoenix can get students to pay for coursework, it makes money, whether or not the students complete the courses or gain marketable skills. Since most of the students can't afford tuition, they either get federal student aid or private loans, both of which have to be paid back by the student. The private loans often come with very stiff interest rates and penalties.
Another article is titled The Subprime Student Loan Racket. It focuses on schools which, unlike U of Phoenix, often make little attempt at educating their students.
Example:
At the age of forty-three, Martine Leveque . . . decided to pursue a career in nursing, a high-demand field where she could also do some good.
While researching her options online, Leveque stumbled on the Web site for Everest College, part of the Corinthian Colleges chain, which pictured students in lab coats and scrubs probing a replica of a human heart and a string of glowing testimonials from graduates. . . . When Leveque contacted the admissions office, she was told she would receive hands-on training from experienced nurses in state-of-the-art labs with the most modern equipment—including a recently purchased $30,000 mannequin that could simulate the birthing process. She also says recruiters told her that she would be able to do rotations at the University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center, one of the nation’s best hospitals.
She received federal and private loans to the tune of $29,000. Then she started classes.
The instructors had little recent medical experience. Instead of really teaching, she says, they usually just read textbooks aloud in class and sometimes offered students the answers on tests ahead of time. On the rare occasions when Leveque and her class were given time in the lab, she found that the equipment was broken down and shoddy—except for the expensive new mannequin, which no one knew how to use. Instead of the promised rotations at UCLA Medical Center, her clinical training consisted of helping pass out pills at a nursing home.
Bottom line: Leveque left with no skills to speak of and a loan balance that ballooned to $40,000.
My instincts tell me, education should be a non profit enterprise designed to do the most possible good for the students. I'm sure it can be done successfully by a well run for profit corporation, but we need adequate safeguards to make sure the profit is not being made at the educational expense of the students.
I posted a more detailed reply regarding colleges on David’s Blog but I’d also that there is also an accreditation process for high schools as well, and any parent considering a private high school for their child should also check the school’s accreditation.
Only about 10% of all schools and colleges get a clean bill all the way through for the whole 10 year cycle, occasionally one immediately gets their accreditation revoked but in the vast majority of cases a follow up visit will be scheduled in about three years by which time any deficiencies identified must have been fixed or the school’s accreditation (or at least the accreditation for the programs in question) will be revoked.
I’m not sure the BBB is best equipped to handle this kind of stuff because they are not experts in education. As long as when she paid them they did in fact provide classrooms and teachers then the BBB won’t have much to go on if she claims they didn’t do a good job of educating her. The BBB is more focused on people who actually don’t provide the service you paid them for (like if they cash your check, clean out their shop and abscond to Grand Cayman.)
She should have checked the accreditation of the institution.
For example, if she had checked Everest College:
http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/InstAccrDetails.aspx?756e697469643d3130303837362663616d70757349643d30267264743d31312f31312f323030392031323a34323a313020504d
She would find that it was last accredited in 1997 (which is already questionable since all public and reliable private colleges go through the accreditation process on a ten year cycle.)
Under ‘residency/internship’ she would have found the following notation:
No Internship/Residency has been found which would immediately have pointed out that what they were saying about doing rotations at UCLA medical center was untrue.
Granted it is possible for a private college to do these things without going through the accreditation process (which I can tell you first hand is a pain in the a**, they come and look at everything) but it would make no sense for a private college to do so since current (i.e. within the past 10 year cycle) accreditation is necessary in virtually every case for another college to even consider transfer credit.
College level education is probably in the same situation that luxury real estate developments was in two years ago. It is a shame that students buy “an education” and then get sold something less than what they should expect.
Even so Everest College in Phoenix has an A rating with BBB.org.
http://www.bbb.org/central-northern-western-arizona/business-reviews/schools-academic-colleges-and-universities/everest-college-in-phoenix-az-15578/
In the end people should always be cautious and skeptical before making a large purchase.
http://caveatemptorblog.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caveat_emptor