Jay Evensen
  • Front Page
  • Opinions
  • Second Thoughts
  • Portfolio
  • Awards
  • About

Obama goes after for-profit schools; what about the rest?

6/20/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
One sentence out of an 846-page law passed in 1965. That’s what President Obama is relying on to impose tough new regulations on for-profit colleges and programs — rules that could soon shut down Corinthian Colleges, a chain that includes 107 centers and serves 72,000 students — without any input from Congress.

That sentence says the federal government has the power to grant financial aid to people who attend higher education programs

that “lead to gainful employment in a recognized occupation.” The important term there is “gainful employment.” The administration wants to define what that means in terms of the percentage of graduates that achieve it, and then punish the for-profit programs that don’t meet this standard.

As this story on Politico.com explains it, the new rules “would flag programs as weak if their graduates’ average loan payments ate up 8 percent or more of their total earnings or 20 percent or more of their discretionary earnings. They would also be flagged if the default rate for former students exceeded 30 percent.

“Any program that failed those tests two out of three consecutive years would face a crippling penalty: The Education Department would refuse to extend financial aid to its students. That would choke off the colleges’ primary source of revenue — and effectively force them to close the targeted programs.”

The problem with this isn’t the idea of getting tough on colleges and programs that are ripping people off by promising careers they can’t deliver. The problem is one of process, as well as fair application.

After all, how many public universities and programs don’t deliver on their promises?

To be fair, the administration is working on a system to rate public and private non-profit universities, and that rating will include employment and salary figures for graduates. But it doesn’t appear this system will come with any consequences for the poorly performing schools, other than some bad publicity.

In a letter to Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Steve Gunderson, the president and CEO of the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities, said:

“Since the beginning of the negotiated rulemaking process, we have expressed our concerns about the Department’s regulatory approach. We cited the make-up of the negotiating committee; the Department’s improper use of the statutory language requiring institutions to offer programs that prepare students for ‘gainful employment’ as a means to regulate student debt; and the Department’s focus on private sector institutions, which irrationally and unlawfully favors traditional public and nonprofit institutions, many of which have programs that would likely lose Title IV eligibility were they subject to the same regulatory scheme.”

He also said, “It is not clear, for example, that graduates of more traditional colleges have substantially better debt-to-earnings ratios than graduates of private sector institutions.”

Gunderson said the for-profit programs tend to enroll older students, of which 40 percent maintain jobs while attending classes. Half are parents. About two-thirds have incomes low enough to qualify for Pell Grants.

If the administration ends up shutting down several private programs, community colleges won’t have the capacity to accept them.

Politico notes the administration counters that students in for-profit programs make up 13 percent of all higher education enrollees and yet are responsible for about half of all student loan defaults. In addition, there are plenty of stories circulating about students being ripped off by broken promises.

Again, what about the public and private non-profit schools that charge enormously high tuition and produce students who either drop out or end up unemployed or with low-paying careers?

Again, this is a process that affects a wide swath of the American public, and it therefore deserves the attention of the people’s representatives in Congress.

Politico quotes North Carolina Rep. Virginia Foxx as saying, “We all agree that substandard schools, whether public, private or for-profit, should face consequences if they fail to provide the education and opportunities they promise, but we are in the middle of re-authorizing the Higher Education Act, and this is a perfect opportunity for the president to work with Congress to find a solution on this complex issue.”

Fairness and a system that results from the considered deliberation of the people’s representatives — that can be a messy process, but it’s what this nation is all about.

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

    Search this site


    Like what you read here?

      Please subscribe below, and we'll let you know when there is a new opinion.

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    Picture

    The author

    Jay Evensen is the Senior Editorial Columnist of the Deseret News. He has nearly 40 years experience as a reporter, editor and editorial writer in Oklahoma, New York City, Las Vegas and Salt Lake City. He also has been an adjunct journalism professor at Brigham Young and Weber State universities.

    Archives

    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012

    Categories

    All
    Campaign 2012
    Congress
    Crime
    Culture
    Iran
    Oil And Gas
    Poverty
    Steroids
    Taxes
    Utah
    Washington
    World Events
    World Events

    Links

    Deseret News
    Newslink
    Marianne Evensen's blog

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.