#ForProfit #Highered @VillageVoice

"Only a Con Man Could Love, Barbarians in the Ivory Tower" by Cris Parker (not at the gates but all the way inside and, having paid off the watchmen, sacking the premises).

For-profit colleges haven't always been scrupulous when it comes to raiding the federal treasury. Between student-aid and GI Bill programs, most schools receive 90 percent of their revenue from the American taxpayer. And the recruiters—often little more than salesmen paid largely by how many people they enroll—are driven mercilessly to keep those cash registers ringing. 

Students don't get much in return. Although tuition rates can run as high as those at America's most esteemed universities, the education is generally substandard. In the end, most kids wind up walking away with a questionable degree bought at top dollar—and a mountain of debt to accompany it.

Great title, fab graphic but that's just the start. Read the rest of the Voice's extensive and detailed article on For-Profit Colleges Only a Con Man Could Love

How Well ARE Students doing after they graduate? Oregon: Call Home

February 9, 2012, Senator Ron Wyden D-OR introduced S-2098, titled the “Student Right to Know Before You Go Act." (watch unveiling on YouTube)


I just got off the phone with the Senator's office, where his helpful staff assured me that my well-reasoned demands—that this bill include "transparency" in regard to the phantom work-force that now runs higher ed—would be heard. 

An Unlikely Exchange? Well, Certainly a Strange One

Well, it was an odd exchange, certainly, billed by Inside Higher Ed as a conversation between Michael Clifford, investor in for-profit colleges, and Bob Shireman, architect of Obama administration's regulation of the sector. 

I shall refer to them as 1) Evil Tycoon and Enemy of Higher Education and 2) Fearless Obamanaut and Protector of the University, just to keep things straight. Read the whole thing if you dare, but three scenes really grabbed my attention. 

The Costs of Higher Education: to Whom?

I saw the Fordham University student newspaper, The Ram, on February 1 and was not surprised to read an editorial therein, that discussed President Obama’s recent remarks on the costs of higher education, and his calls for accountability.

The Ram specifically mentioned that, as college students, they were obviously glad to “hear about a possible tuition decrease.” Left out of the editorial, unfortunately, as indeed it has been left out of most of the discussion of “reform” in higher education, is any discussion of the position of the faculty, which is that community in any college or university which is charged with the production, evaluation, and transmission of knowledge, and without which, one can easily argue, there is no higher education left to reform.