The For-Profit Education Industry

Senator Tom Harkin's comprehensive report on the for-profit college industry revealed this about DeVry: tuition for an associate’s degree is 10 times higher than at community colleges, it has a dropout rate of 50 percent (60 percent for online students) within a median of 3 1/2 months; spending per student of less than $3000 per year on education, about a quarter of what is spent by the University of Illinois; a CEO salary of $6.3 million, 46 times more than the president of the University of Illinois; and evidence of deceptive recruiting of students. At least two state attorneys general, Illinois and Massachusetts, are investigating DeVry.

When imagining a well-rounded school, one might think of a school filled with discussion based English classes, interactive Math classes, exciting labs, and rich History classes; one may also think of an endless list of extracurricular activities and athletic teams. Sadly, many public schools across the country do not have these opportunities. The Diane Ravitch book: Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools, focuses upon Ravitch’s opinion on this important issue. Since the No Child Left Behind Act was passed in 2001, schools have focused on math and reading scores; because of this, schools have disregarded and cut back on other subjects that they are not being tested on such as

An American philosopher by the name of Martha Nussbaum argued in regards to how the world’s economic development cannot produce democracy. Being an author of over twenty books in topics relating to educational reform as well as social policy, one of work she had produced, Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities explains her theories in why this is not possible. Nussbaum believes today’s educational system focuses too much on professional training rather than the current political issues. [She states, “nations all over the world will soon be producing generations of useful machines, rather than complete citizens who can think for themselves, criticize tradition, and understand

In the 1997 article, “Public Goods, Private Goods: The American Struggle over Educational Goals” by David Labaree, Labaree describes three goals that have been at the core of educational conflicts over the years. The first goal mentioned is democratic equality, which is meant to create good citizens and enable educational access to all. The second goal is social efficiency, which creates workers and is viewed by taxpayers and employers as a goal to prepare students for market roles. Lastly is the third goal of social mobility, where individual success for attractive market roles is the main purpose. This primary goal of education has been ever fluctuating. The argument of this essay is that social mobility has now triumphed over democratic equality and social efficiency as the primary goal of education due to parents. This view of social mobility by parents is negative to due its numerous consequences, significantly the growing disparity between the wealthy and the underprivileged, and additionally, the health of children, their behavior, and the degree to which they learn educational material are all affected.

Many of these schools provide night classes that accommodate students who have full time jobs. There are also multiple fortune 500 companies who have partnered with for-profit schools to provide educational opportunities for their employees. For-profit universities have also bought out colleges that would had to close their doors for good. Accreditation is also becoming more common among for-profit universities so some degrees will hold the same value as one from a traditional

There are several characteristics of for-profit colleges that make them vastly different from two-year community colleges or four-year state or private universities. The first major difference is that for-profit colleges are run more like a corporation than traditional colleges. This allows them to hire professors on short-term contracts, without requiring them to gain tenure. This practice is beneficial to for-profit colleges because if the professor’s statistics are horrible, he or she could be let go of sooner without having to go through a review board process, the college could simply not renew their contract. Another difference from tradition colleges is that classes can start at for-profit schools more often and classes can continue all-year. This is due to the fact that most of the student body at for-profits schools are online students who may be located thousands of miles away from the base campus. Another major difference of for-profit colleges is that new courses can be

In general, for-profit schools cost more to attend, because they are run like businesses. And it definitely does not take a college degree to see that these high prices plus low income students equal greater risk of default. For-profit colleges began as family owned trade schools but over the years they have expanded into educational businesses that accept any student, regardless of their financial wellbeing or aptitude. On the other hand, traditional schools have neglected to notice the rising need for an education that is flexible and convenient. In his article “Why Do You Think They’re Called For-Profit Colleges,” Kevin Carey writes to an audience of higher education students and faculty to convince them the pros and cons of both traditional and for-profit schools using different rhetorical, organizational, and stylistic strategies.

A summary of Why Do You Think They’re Called For-Profit Colleges? The article, Why Do You Think They’re Called For-Profit Colleges? by Kevin Carey first appeared in The Chronicle of Higher Education on July 25, 2010. In this article, Carey discusses the controversy concerning the billions of dollars in federal aid money received by for-profit colleges. He introduces Michael Clifford, who, according to fastcompany.com, chairs Significant Federation, a private equity firm that is a principal investor in a half-dozen higher-education companies.

"A Conveyer Belt of Droupouts and Debt at For-Profit Colleges"and "The Devil and Tom Walker" may not seem to be alike at first, but as you get to read both of these exerpts a clear theme is identified. For profit colleges are not worth the financial risk, as for-profit colleges are more geared towards taking your money, as opposed to providing you with the best education it can offer.

The corporate school reform which has originated through political movement mainly has methods in which are taken from the political approaches. The fact that most of the school board members consists of those who professions in business instead of education is not favorable. The Failure of Corporate School Reform on page one states that the corporate school reformers try to “imagine public schools as private businesses, districts as markets, students as consumers, and knowledge as product.” If I am able to purchase my knowledge, that will be great. Yet, I am not able to do that, and I feel like the reformers are only looking at me as one of the pawns on the chessboard; the reformers are only thinking of us as money.

competes in bring in massive revenue as well. The fact that the university is making

In 1976 the University of Phoenix was opened by John Sperling. Today this is still one of the the many for profit learning institutions, but at the time there was nothing new about for-profit colleges. These colleges have been around since the colonial era, and they were funded by entrepreneurs which in their time they were usually the high ranking clergymen. During the colonial era there were not enough places of education for everyone to learn, so these entrepreneurs created for-profit colleges, and they are still here today.

For-profit providers of school services companies are commonly operating for-profit schools, selling curriculum and materials for home schooling, and supplementing other programs like summer school, music and sports this providing different options for all kind of

After Robert Zaller explained how the housing market crashed due to a tremendous rise in prices, he said, “Now, looking at the costs of private higher education, typically in the range of $40,000-$50,000 per year, it seems clear that they, too, have become unsustainable” (553). High school students, from their first day of freshman year, are pushed to look into attending a “big” college, which often means the most expensive colleges. The cost of the college is not a top

Disadvantages for non-profit hospitals is they are not owned by anyone; meaning that some non-profit hospitals may not be able to afford all of the latest technology or sometimes offering the cost-effective services when operating in lower-income areas. Non-Profit hospitals have “higher operating costs because of a high amount of uncompensated care and the charitable component of their operations” (Kovner & Knickman, 2008).