commentaries

Many of the problems associated with for-profit schools can be found in our Public Universities as well. Financial aid policies that "entice for-profit universities to push tuition up" do the same thing at Public Colleges. The answer is not more regulation - the answer is eliminate the aid and let College costs drop to the point that the market will support.

"Many of the problems associated with for-profit schools can be found in our Public Universities as well." Show me public university president salaries that compare with the 2.7 million the CEO of Capella got a few years ago - for an institution with under 30,000 students, no major research facilities, etc.. C'mon.

C'mon luzhishen, CEO salaries are not the focus of this article, nor do they have any significant affect on the quality or cost of the education received. Why is it that liberals are so opposed to letting people have the freedom to choose, unless it involves sex? Health care, education, our paychecks, and the size of our soda are evidently things we are too stupid to figure out on our own - but don't let the government interfere with our "right" to kill another living human being.

my4centsOct. 26, 12 5:14 PM C'mon luzhishen, CEO salaries are not the focus of this article, nor do they have any significant affect on the quality or cost of the education received. Why is it that liberals are so opposed to letting people have the freedom to choose, unless it involves sex? Health care, education, our paychecks, and the size of our soda are evidently things we are too stupid to figure out on our own - but don't let the government interfere with our "right" to kill another living human being.----------------------------------------------------- I really don't understand why you would throw your argument over a cliff like that.

From the article: "[T]he study also found that students at for-profits graduate with far higher debt burdens than comparable students elsewhere. This results from high tuition costs, ... a good chunk of [which] is going to marketing ... [S]tudents at for-profits are more likely to be unemployed after graduation." Why support a system which fails at its goals? Except that of making a profit....

This article takes the focus off of the real issue. All colleges are out of touch with reality. Costs are out of control at public schools as well and this is not a govt funding issue.

elmore1 - But IT IS a government funding issue - for all schools. School costs are subsidized a great deal with direct subsidies to State Schools and financial aid and subsidized loans to the students. Take away the funding and tuition costs for all would need to be reduced - AND we would probably see fewer schools, especially the more questionable ones.

It saddens me that many for-profit school worked so hard but ultimately have failed to be lasting opportunity for students, especially older, minority, and disadvantaged students, students the public and private universities wouldn't touch nor dream of helping because the risks were too great, the tasks too hard, the hours crippling. Of course the chance of successly placing these students into viable careers was very low. I'm proud that many for-profits were able to do so, and do so consistently for decades. Most of us who worked at such places gave (and continue to give) our lives for students. Good apples tend to rot in the proximity of bad apples, or they blindly are crushed by those who fear that, even without any obvious surface blemishes, the core of every apple must be rotten—because that is what they already have decided.