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May 12, 2010 1:11 PM
Education Department Supports For-Profits, To a Point
Despite an interesting interview he gave for PBS’s Frontline when asked about a specific for-profit school’s abuse, Education Secretary Arne Duncan actually rather likes for-profit schools. At least he likes them when, you know, they do a good job. According to an article by Andrea Fuller in the Chronicle of Higher Education:
Mr. Duncan said on Tuesday in a luncheon speech at the forum that there are a “few bad apples” among actors in the for-profit college sector, but he emphasized the “vital role” for-profit institutions play in job training.
Those colleges, he said, are critical to helping the nation achieve President Obama’s goal of making the United States the nation with the highest portion of college graduates by 2020.
This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. Lots of people in the Obama education department appear to support for-profit colleges very much. But then, the for-profit community and the department are still arguing about how to regulate the schools. Let’s see how far Duncan’s support for the “vital role” of proprietary schools takes them.
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Texas Aggie on May 13, 2010 12:05 AM:
I always have an "oh-oh, here we go again" response when someone mentions "just a few bad apples." From what I read about charter schools, bad apples are more the rule than not.
It seems to me that far and away the schools most responsible for training future scientists, the foot soldiers in the war against ignorance, are the research universities and the nonprofit colleges and universities. What are the for profit schools that are doing the same job? Trying to make a profit out of education doesn't seem like such a good idea because with profit as the primary motive, the product (educated students) will take a hit if it becomes more profitable to work that way. If short changing students increases profits, students will get short changed.
Tamila on May 17, 2010 8:49 PM:
You should watch the documentary referenced, Texas Aggie: College Inc. It gives a good overview about the for-profit higher ed space, warts and all. The for profits are not competing with the research universities--they are competing to some extent with community colleges who can't expand capacity fast enough to meet demand for Associates degrees, and to some extent with non-consumption of higher education. Profit is certainly a motive, but it is also a pretty heavily regulated space (by accreditors, states, and the Dept of Ed), so there is an incentive to provide at least some level of quality to the education. You could argue it would be better for the community colleges to improve their outcomes and capacity, but there would need to be some massive changes in higher education policy to achieve that. In the absence of growth and improvement among community colleges, Duncan has no choice but to see the for-profits as 'vital.'