They
come at night. They’re tucked unassumingly in between Taco Bell ads and Welcome
Back Kotter reruns. They come in the morning. They appear between dramatic courtroom
shows and Maury. We’ve all been subject to their slogans and bad acting. They
are for-profit college commercials. ITT Tech and University of Phoenix are just
a few of the many “colleges” that are raking in cash by using predatory schemes
to lure in uninformed people. The image
above is actually one that popped up in my Facebook ads this afternoon. They’ve become the educational version of a “get
rich quick scam.” In a nutshell, these “universities” advertise that getting an
education from their program is a quick and easy way to get better jobs. After
all, the news is constantly talking about how one needs a 4 year degree to be competitive
in the job market, right? What could be so bad about offering someone an
education? Well, it turns out that these programs are nothing more than a
massive scam designed to sap money out of the government and burden poor people
with gigantic student loans.
Their
techniques are predatory. They advertise late at night or during working hours.
They’re targeting the unemployed and uninformed. There also seems to be
overwhelming evidence that these institutions are specifically targeting
minorities and the poor. “More than a quarter of low-income black female
students entering college for the first time attended for-profit colleges
during the 2008 academic year, according to Department of Education data.”(Link). These so called colleges have dreadfully low rates of graduation and often
saddle students with ludicrously high amounts of debt. “Twenty-two percent of
first-time, full-time students seeking bachelors’ degrees graduate from
for-profit colleges within six years, compared with a 55 percent graduation
rate at public colleges and 65 percent at private nonprofit universities…” (Link).
From that same article, we have a terrifying figure regarding the debt of these
students: “The median debt level for bachelor’s degree recipients at for-profit
colleges is $31,190, compared with $7,960 at public institutions and $17,040 at
private nonprofit colleges…”
That number should terrify anyone paying attention. That’s
just the student loan side of the equation. They also siphon an astounding
amount of money out of the federal government too. According to research
completed by the group Education Trust, for profit colleges “get up to 90
percent of their revenue from federal grants and loans and received $26.5
billion last year in U.S. student aid.” (Link).
Along with the federal grants, these institutions go after soldiers. The GI
bill is a program that assists soldiers with college tuition. These for profit
institutions are not overlooking the US military when scavenging for new
students. In fact, “Eight for-profit colleges and universities received $1
billion — or 24 percent of all G.I. Bill money in the last year…” Of course,
graduation rates are just as low with returning soldiers as they are with
low-income students. ““Of the eight for-profits receiving the most G.I. Bill
money, five saw more than half of their students fail to graduate…” (Link)
 |
| What a well placed ad. |
Now it’s time for a personal anecdote. I don’t know many
people that got sucked into these colleges, but I know two. My brother in law
and his best friend got their bachelor degrees from ITT Tech in Tampa, FL.
After four years of education, my brother-in-law’s friend managed to amass
76,000 dollars in student loans at an 11 percent interest rate. My brother-in-law
got off much worse. His student loans are well over 100k also at 11 percent
interest. Now, after shelling out that much cash (or rather, borrowing it) they
must have incredible degrees and high paying jobs, right? Nope. Not at all. In
fact, my brother didn’t have a degree yet (he’s in the process of getting his
engineering degree), and he managed to get a position at the same business as
my brother-in-law’s friend. My brother came in earning 4 to 5 dollars more an
hour than the friend. The Human Resources department at that company was
willing to pay him more solely because he wasn’t getting his degree from a for
profit college. He ended up talking to an HR director one day and brought up
ITT Tech and the like. The HR director said that it’s a massive red flag to see
that on a resume. She stated that individuals from for-profit-colleges often
graduate lacking any real job skills. They may have passed their courses, but
they are technically unsound. She stated that she would rather hire someone
working on their degree at a public four year university than hire someone who
had already graduated college from a for-profit. That’s saying something right
there. Even if you ignore the fact that these businesses are preying on the poor
and siphoning money from the government, these institutions still aren’t properly
educating students.
Even if someone realized that they were getting nowhere in a
for profit school, their credits are almost entirely useless. Most colleges
refuse to accept transfer credits from for-profit-schools. The reason is that
these institutions are not regionally-accredited. If you listen to one of their
many commercials, you will hear the spokesman proudly say that the institution
is nationally-accredited. That makes it
sounds like it’s a legitimate school. But in reality, the process of national-accreditation
is much more lax in comparison to regional accreditation.
I don’t believe that many people know about the dangers of
for-profit schools. Considering that they target the poor and uninformed with
predatory marketing practices, I believe that these institutions pose a huge
danger to the working class. What’s even more terrifying is that Republican
candidate Mitt Romney actively supports for-profit-colleges. He stated that the
free market helps keep the price of education down and that for-profit colleges
are an excellent way for the working class to get educated (Link).
One more reason to be careful of who you vote for.
EDIT: Here's a wonderful website filled with personal anecdotes from former ITT Tech students. http://myittexperience.com/ITT_Comments.htm
Here's a handy little infographic from NPR:
No comments:
Post a Comment