ACTA's Must-Reads
« In memoriam | Main | Opening up a back door to mediocrity »
Closing down the worst kind of factories
Earlier this summer, the Obama administration announced its intent to change the rules concerning eligibility of for-profit colleges and universities for federal student loans. The administration is concerned that too many for-profits are becoming "dropout factories," where students are saddled with debt and get an inadequate and far too often incomplete education. Its latest proposals are focusing on for-profits to ensure their students meet targets for loan repayment and job placement. Schools who fail to meet government standards will run the risk of being declared ineligible for federal student loans -- a death sentence for most.
There is no question that abuses occur in for-profit schools; students can be exploited, drop out and receive a shoddy education. As the Washington Monthly points out, though, there are dozens of public and non-profit private schools that are also dropout factories, enrolling thousands of students and graduating only a fraction -- sometimes less than one in ten. These schools are all over the country, urban and rural, large and small, religious and secular, and they deserve to be "named and shamed" every bit as much as ineffective for-profits.
Whatever steps the government takes, they should address both for-profit and non-profit institutions. It's dead wrong for corporations to leave students with debt in return for half a degree; it's just as wrong when it's done by State U.
Posted by Eric Markley on August 30, 2010 at August 30, 2010 09:57 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.goactablog.org/blog/mt-tb.cgi/797