So is this why Hillary opposes free college tuition? ------ UPDATE $16.5 m

[grasswire]

Last edited Sun Feb 14, 2016, 09:08 PM - Edit history (2)

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/25/us/politics/bill-clinton-ends-role-with-laureate-chain-of-for-profit-colleges.html


Bill Clinton raked in 4.5 million from for-profit colleges, and then stepped down several weeks before Hillary announced her candidacy.

Did Laureate pay to play?

UPDATE:

Laureate Education, a for-profit chain with a global reach, paid Bill Clinton $16.5 million between 2010 and 2014, Bloomberg reported last week. Clinton had served as an honorary chancellor for Laureate International Universities, a subsidiary of the privately held company, which is among the world's largest higher education providers.

[kgnu_fan]

1. oh no....

[azmom]

2. Hmmmmmm, let me see.....

[Ferd Berfel]

23. Is this a trick question?

[JRLeft]

3. Didn't you know $ doesn't influence candidates. At least that is the message Hillary and are

followers have tried to convey.

[TTUBatfan2008]

17. Actually...

Her message is even worse. Only Republicans are influenced by hundreds of millions of dollars in corporate and billionaire donations. Democrats are not capable of corruption.

[JRLeft]

20. And dragons are real.

[Cassiopeia]

22. No no, women aren't capable of corruption.

[cascadiance]

29. I guess that's why Michele Bachmann decided against moving to Switzerland and becoming a citizen?

No swiss bankster accounts for her then!

[quantass]

51. K&R

[Plucketeer]

60. AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

But it's HER TURN! Gall-dangit!

[Kip Humphrey]

91. That's because Democrats lack the money-corrupts-me gene.

[LiberalArkie]

42. The supremes said it was just freedom of speech

[Skwmom]

4. Read up about Laureate. It's a real eye opener.

[restorefreedom]

5. they want to give colleges "incentives"

so more $$$$ that will just get funneled back in "speaking fees"

[grasswire]

6. thanks to DU-er Ugly Greed for raising this issue in a post. nt

[SoLeftIAmRight]

7. Let's ask some Hillary supporters what they think.

...

[Cassiopeia]

24. The talking points haven't come in yet.

[SoLeftIAmRight]

25. ouch!

[amborin]

112. they're here now, though

[AllyCat]

83. On another thread about health care and education in Germany,

the Hillary supporters are just saying it isn't free and that it's different in Germany because there are standards and limits on who gets in. Apparently, we would not have those standards according to them and that's why we can't have just ANYBODY going to college.

[snort]

97. What's the matter with you?

You want ooogy stinky stupid people right next to you in class? This is not America!

[certainot]

93. i'll still gladly vote for her if she's the candidate over any fucking republican

and if you want some perspective consider that students for bernie all over the country are going to universities that support rw radio stations that are attacking bernie and will a lot more if he is the candidate.

and every major issue bernie and his supporters care about can be protested at those universities.

90 major unis endorse 260 limbaugh stations. those radio stations are selling out their logos and mascots and community cred for a few dollars to radio stations that have spent 25 years electing republicans, defunding public ed to privatize it, attacking teachers, obstructing efforts to lower student debt, and opposing any local/state efforts by dems to increase public ed funding.

here in NM i just heard the big state limbaugh station spend hours of local blowhard time trying to defeat two efforts to increase school funding, while proudly flying the UNM lobos banner.

those stations have spent 25 years sniping at the clintons. they will do the same to bernie if he is the candidate and bernie supporters will not be able to say collectively that they got his back if they continue to ignore rw radio while it lies and takes free pot shots at him.

[SoLeftIAmRight]

94. it will not be "gladly" for me

...

[certainot]

96. i am glad to be able to vote and will be glad to vote and

i will be more glad if i can vote for bernie in the general

[Duval]

102. Nor for me.

[JDPriestly]

109. Question is: does a radio station that accepts government funding or

support have the right to endorse a candidate directly or indirectly?

I think that might be something that a court should consider.

A company that owns a radio station may have a constitutional right to endorse a candidate and certainly to broadcast different points of view about politics.

But does a public institution have the right to endorse even indirectly a specific candidate for public office?

I'm not sure that I understand your statement correctly, but I have a sense that someone is crossing a line there.

Of course, the university would argue that it is not endorsing a candidate just by lending its logo to a station that may or may not endorse a candidate. But I have a question about the practice.

[certainot]

111. could a school object if they were KKK stations?

because basically they are. kkk lite anyway.

the global warming denial alone should be cause to sever those relationships. they have no excuse.

the way it works is the school hires a licensing co and the licensing co gets radio stations to pay them for the licensing privileges and the lic co pays some of it to the school. it appears to be very small part of most licensing fees the school gets compared with tv, etc.

i think if it takes public money it has an obligation to stay out of politics.

the school would probably say it that it chooses stations, or the licensing companies that choose the stations, based on highest bidder etc., and they don't make decisions based on politics. and most of those 90 schools also broadcast on a variety of other stations.

but those particular stations work against everything those schools say they stand for in their mission statements.

aside from the anti-public ed stances of the republican radio stations they also weigh in on regent elections and choices of university chancellor and presidents- so there's a conflict of interest.

all the students and alum have to do is get the school community to talk about its support for rw radio and advertisers will flee. a lot of those stations involved would have to reconsider their programming if they want to keep the university endorsement. with that kind of attention on talk radio the coming elections will be a disaster for republicans.

and a dem pres could have supermajorities.

[corkhead]

8. No, it's because she doesn't want Donald Trump's kids going to college for free

for the same reason she probably doesn't want his kids driving on public roads or using the library I presume.

[LibDemAlways]

27. She argues that the wealthy don't need a free public

Last edited Mon Feb 15, 2016, 02:04 AM - Edit history (1)

college education, which is true. Of course people like Trump don't send their kids to public universities anyway, so it's a moot point. What she fails to discuss is that the 99% who are not made of money would benefit tremendously by having access to tuition-free public universities. The savings for a middle class family would be huge, and Bernie's plan would create opportunities for many deserving students to realize the dream of a higher education -- something that they cannot currently do without being faced with tremendous debt down the road.

[SheilaT]

48. Who gives a flying fuck if rich people choose to send their kids

to public schools? That's NOT a reason to deny free education to the rest of us.

Hell, one very wealthy family I know, had a son who started at the local community college. He had a track scholarship there, and quite frankly he wasn't the best scholar out there. After two years transferred to a state university, got a degree in a P.E. related field and has found good employment since. I know for a while he was connected to a major sports team, not as a player, and I don't want to be more specific to protect his privacy.

My point is, everyone who wants an education should have the opportunity to do it for very low cost. The only real issue I see with free, or at least very inexpensive education, is that a lot of people who might otherwise have gone to a private school will now opt for the public one, and that might create a real bottle neck for admissions. Keep in mind that the actual underlying problem about admissions preferences is NOT if one group is favored over another, but that there are a limited number of spaces, and the public institutions have not actually kept up with the demand.

[Doitnow]

50. We all have to realize that public universities

which we USED to have, by the way, would be like having a public option in that it would force competition with private schools and as a result, their prices would have to come down.

[elljay]

61. Both my Parents

Got a free education at Brooklyn College. My dad's family was poor and my mom's working class. Many of our relatives and neighbors also got college degrees from the free schools of CUNY. They were the children of Italian and Jewish immigrants who often never completed high school (my grandmother was illiterate) and used their degrees to pull their families into the middle class. The rich still had Harvard and other private schools. Why is it we were able to educate our parents' generation tuition-free but can't do so for our children? Perhaps something to do with enormous administrative salaries and sports budgets?

[Volaris]

36. As if Donald Trumps kids would ever stoop so low as to attend a Public or State college.

The argument is ridiculous on its face.

[FailureToCommunicate]

57. True for the uber rich's impression of public & state colleges, HOWEVER many are damn good

and also, tuition (the part Bernie would make "free&quot is not that big an expense. There are still lots of cost beyond tuition that folks would have to cover. But it certainly would help!

for example:

http://www.massachusetts.edu/about-umass-system

[TexasBushwhacker]

58. That's what I was thinking

Not to mention the number of rich kids is quite small compared to middle class and poor kids. Much ado about nothing.

[Hydra]

9. I liked this part:

"Laureate is said to have a number of backers from both political parties, including the Republican investor Henry Kravis and the Democratic billionaire George Soros."

Yet another link in the chain of the incestuous circle of money the 1% live in.

[grasswire]

11. yep

and we thought the Bushes were craven and ghoulish profiteers

[Hydra]

13. That's why the Bushes adopted them

"Brother from another mother" indeed.

[Doctor_J]

16. The Clinton supporters don't or won't get that THIS is why we won't vote for her

As HIghtower says, the division between up and down is more destructive than the one between left and right.

[hedda_foil]

84. Most of them actually think that none of it is true. And the pro's don't give a Damn.

[840high]

45. Just seeing those names makes me sick.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. Even if this is perception, not good

[questionseverything]

108. that is the thing

used to be even the perception of illegal behavior was enough

now what we hear is

there is no proof

no proof,not indicted yet is not much of a campaign slogan

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

12. Grifters?

[Divernan]

14. World class . . . . gold standard . . . . olympic level!

[840high]

46. Top of the line.

[SammyWinstonJack]

80. The best.

[arcane1]

15. She's also getting funding, via PACs, from studen loan organizations like Navient.

They damn sure don't want tuition-free college. And they aren't so stupid as to donate to a politician who is going to take away their business.

[grasswire]

18. thank you for that, too

Investigating the Clinton viper nest has just taken on new twists.

[Divernan]

52. And where are all her loyal followers?

Is someone live streaming her super secret fundraiser with Big Fracking tonight?

[AzDar]

19. K & R

[Cassiopeia]

21. Follow the money.

It leads every political position Clinton really holds. If it pays well, she's for it.

[jalan48]

26. Let's just say Bill's treatment of Monica is indicative of what he thinks of others.

We're rubes to Bill-there for the taking.

[Kalidurga]

28. I am not sure there is a connection and no I am not kidding.

I don't for a minute think that Hillary's ideas on college funding are good. I think she is horrible for even saying that some people should pay when they go to a public college and some shouldn't. But, I don't see how free college at public colleges would effect private colleges. I need someone to draw me a picture on this. Not just follow the money. I mean exactly how would not funding low income students help the for profit colleges?

[Cassiopeia]

30. It affects the industry that lends so much money for education.

[cascadiance]

32. It's kind of like the funding of private high schools versus public high schools...

When we want to in effect put in public college in to the realm of public high schools in similar funding models, we'll have the same questions regarding charter and private schools and their funding too with the private universities and colleges. We should try to come up with a decent solution for both.

[Kalidurga]

34. I agree we should come up with a decent situation for both forms of college.

But, about the plight of the lenders of those vast sums of money I won't shed any tears for them. Not even if they end up having to take a $15 dollar an hour ditch digging job to make ends meet.

[sulphurdunn]

31. I'm beginning to think

influence peddling is the Clinton family business.

[grasswire]

35. yep and I have always despised the Bushies for it.

We've been fools, all these years.

[hedda_foil]

81. I feel the same way, grasswire. We've been flimflammed for almost 25 years.

I know I fell for the line of a big-time con artist. It's sickening.

[bvar22]

86. Not really fools.

We did not have instant access to information like we do today.
We did the best we could do with what we had to work with.

We now do the job that our Media should have been doing,
and we have gotten smarter about following the money and spotting the conflict of interests.

[Gary 50]

85. That's what Carly Fiorina said.

It's the only thing I ever heard her say that I agreed with.

[amborin]

33. great research! this reeks so badly!

[amborin]

37. NO!!!!!!!! Bill got $16.5 Million:

Laureate Paid Bill Clinton $16.5 Million
August 3, 2015

Laureate Education, a for-profit chain with a global reach, paid Bill Clinton $16.5 million between 2010 and 2014, Bloomberg reported last week. Clinton had served as an honorary chancellor for Laureate International Universities, a subsidiary of the privately held company, which is among the world's largest higher education providers.

He stepped down earlier this year, after his wife, Hillary, officially launched her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. Laureate had not disclosed how much it paid the Clintons. But Hillary Clinton's campaign released the couple's tax returns on Friday, Bloomberg reported.

https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2015/08/03/laureate-paid-bill-clinton-165-million

[grasswire]

38. I'm going to update the OP with this information

GREAT FIND

[grasswire]

39. is that in addition to the 4.2?

Do you know?

[amborin]

40. idk but look at this:

New emails released from Hillary Clinton’s email server reveal that while she was secretary of state, Clinton did a favor for a for-profit education company that later paid her husband more than $16 million.

In 2009, just a few months after Hillary took over at the Department of State, she was involved in planning a private dinner on education policy that featured herself, several State Department staff, and about a dozen individuals involved with higher education…

http://hotair.com/archives/2015/09/03/emails-reveal-that-hillary-clinton-helped-out-a-for-profit-school-that-paid-bill-millions/

[grasswire]

43. holy crap

you are good

[amborin]

44. more here: conflicted with Obama's intent to end fed grants to students at for-profits:

Laureate hired Bill Clinton just as the Obama administration was working on its first try at controversial regulations on “gainful employment” and as then-Senate HELP Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) launched a series of hearings scrutinizing the industry, which relies heavily on federal student aid grants and loans for revenue.

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-04-24/bill-clinton-leaves-for-profit-college-position

need to find another source re: the emails about the dinner while secretary of state

[Hydra]

62. You deserve stars for the follow up

Thank you!

[hedda_foil]

89. From amborin's link to the Bloomberg piece... Hillary's connections

Hillary Clinton's direct ties to the company are more limited. Laureate CEO Douglas Becker gave $4,600 to her 2008 presidential campaign and $2,000 to her 2000 Senate campaign. The company was also one of the founding donors to the 100,000 Strong Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to expanding Mandarin language study in the United States that Hillary Clinton launched just before leaving the State Department in 2013. Later that year, she attended Laureate investor KKR’s annual meeting in southern California and faced questions from firm founder Henry Kravis.

In a reminder of Washington’s tangled allegiances, the Center for American Progress, founded by Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, has long advocated for tougher oversight of the industry, while the Podesta Group, the firm he founded with his brother Tony, has for years represented the industry’s largest trade group and some individual companies.

And this just goes back to April of.last year.

[PonyUp]

41. BINGO! nt

[Uncle Joe]

47. I'm sure this part is just a cosmic coincidence.

Laureate is said to have a number of backers from both political parties, including the Republican investor Henry Kravis and the Democratic billionaire George Soros.

Reviews of Laureate have been mixed, but it is not considered among the worst offenders in the for-profit college industry. President Obama took action against the industry in 2010 as criticism mounted that for-profit colleges encouraged students to take on burdensome levels of debt to pay for subpar educations.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/25/us/politics/bill-clinton-ends-role-with-laureate-chain-of-for-profit-colleges.html

By Kenneth P. Vogel
01/31/16 07:26 PM EST

(snip)

George Soros in December donated $6 million to the leading super PAC supporting Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, marking the return of the billionaire financier as among the biggest givers in all of American politics.

The massive check brings to $8 million the Hungarian-born investor's total 2015 giving to pro-Clinton groups.

(snip)

Despite intense courtship in 2012, Soros gave only $1 million to Priorities USA, which at the time was dedicated to supporting President Obama’s reelection. That year he told a close Clinton ally that he regretted supporting Obama over her in the 2008 primaries and praised Clinton for giving him an open door to discuss policy, according to emails released last month by the State Department.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/01/hillary-clinton-george-soros-218494

Thanks for the thread, grasswire.

[Hydra]

63. "Praised Clinton for giving him an open door to discuss policy"

The perfect encapsulation of all of it.

[cui bono]

70. +1,000,000!!!

[cantbeserious]

49. We Us Together - Vs - Me My Bank Account And I -- The Choice Is Clear

This just reeks.

Influence peddling of the highest order.

Is it not crystal clear that HRC and WJC are up to their eyeballs in white collar corruption?

[Dont call me Shirley]

53. The big lie is that we have a Free Market, quite the opposite, we have a Pay To Play system.

[Skwmom]

56. A pay to play system that lets the American Public be preyed upon. Read up about for profit

colleges.

[amborin]

113. +1000

[bbgrunt]

54. Disgusting. Thanks for the info! k and r!!!

[Nyan]

55. For-profit college is a disgrace.

[slipslidingaway]

59. "Where to Invade Next" ....

MM's new film. In Finland there is a law that bans for profit schools, not sure if that is K-8 or beyond.

HC and education should be a right.

Why Are Finland's Schools Successful?

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/why-are-finlands-schools-successful-49859555/?no-ist

"......The transformation of the Finns’ education system began some 40 years ago as the key propellent of the country’s economic recovery plan. Educators had little idea it was so successful until 2000, when the first results from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a standardized test given to 15-year-olds in more than 40 global venues, revealed Finnish youth to be the best young readers in the world. Three years later, they led in math. By 2006, Finland was first out of 57 countries (and a few cities) in science. In the 2009 PISA scores released last year, the nation came in second in science, third in reading and sixth in math among nearly half a million students worldwide. “I’m still surprised,” said Arjariita Heikkinen, principal of a Helsinki comprehensive school. “I didn’t realize we were that good.”

In the United States, which has muddled along in the middle for the past decade, government officials have attempted to introduce marketplace competition into public schools. In recent years, a group of Wall Street financiers and philanthropists such as Bill Gates have put money behind private-sector ideas, such as vouchers, data-driven curriculum and charter schools, which have doubled in number in the past decade. President Obama, too, has apparently bet on compe­tition. His Race to the Top initiative invites states to compete for federal dollars using tests and other methods to measure teachers, a philosophy that would not fly in Finland. “I think, in fact, teachers would tear off their shirts,” said Timo Heikkinen, a Helsinki principal with 24 years of teaching experience. “If you only measure the statistics, you miss the human aspect.”

........"

[geardaddy]

87. We saw that on Saturday.

Excellent film! Go watch it!

[Bernblu]

64. What the hell do they do with their money?

I know what they do for their money.

[Hydra]

65. They used it as a key to enter the 1% world

They are then expected to keep it moving in that circle, investing and helping various (nefarious) causes by public support or facilitating it.

I'm sure most of it will go to Chelsea and the kids. They will be set forever.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

68. In '08 Hillary ended up millions in debt to polling firms

[paleotn]

66. Oh, good God.....

....is there no end?

Not only is he one of the slickest politicians in the last 50 years, he cashes in like no one else.

[Iggy Knorr]

67. Very Interesting

[CharlotteVale]

69. Ka-ching!

[Gene Debs]

71. This is part of Hillary's plan to make the TOUGH DECISIONS to TAKE ON the student loan cartels.

[Skwmom]

72. Hillary had them invited to a state dinner.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511181495

[NCTraveler]

73. Can you please tell me who is supporting "free college tuition"?

Additionally, I hope you see the blatant logical fail in this argument. Even if taken at face value.

[Skwmom]

74. Grasswire here is some more reading for you.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511137475#post17

[Orsino]

75. I was all set to downplay donations to the Foundation...

...but I won't excuse what looks like under-the-table payments to candidate Clinton.

I don't know how entangled the Clintons' finances are with one another's, either, I suppose, but this looks terrible.

[grasswire]

78. I suspect this is just one tentacle of the octopus

The Clintons appear to be engaged in major graft/corruption.

[Skwmom]

76. And here's some more. You might want to update your post.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511162066

[Vinca]

77. Anything for a buck.

Or in this case millions of bucks . . . for an "honorary" position?

[hedda_foil]

79. Well obviously, this institution "higher learning" had their reasons for paying him $16.5 million

In four years! Bill, of course, is innocent of any charges, so don't you dare say quid pro quo.

[grasswire]

82. what I say is this

It's time to look into those Clinton scandals of yore again. Smoke -- fire.

[hedda_foil]

92. Second the motion. Those old scandals that we were convinced were all RW smoke without fire.

The women may have been a smokescreen, so to speak, that covered up financial scams.

[grasswire]

98. It's a very cynical ploy put over on us.

I smh thinking about the hours I spend defending them both.

[DUbeornot2be]

88. Hmmm...

...Caca Laureate?

[Bad Thoughts]

90. Clinton is to the right of Angela Merkel! eom.

[SoapBox]

95. No...More...Clintons!

Good gawd...it just never ends with the Flat-Broke family.

And to think that last week, he shows up in NH, slamming Bernie, in his average-everyday-Joe red, plaid flannel shirt.

Ack!

No More Clintons EVER!

[grasswire]

99. well, his shirt probably was Ralph Lauren...

....but your point is excellent anyhoo.

[stuffmatters]

100. How can you be the solution if you're funded by the problem?

Seems Hillary just does not or simply refuses to get it.

[grasswire]

101. excellent characterization.

you ought to start an OP with it.

[Duval]

103. K&R. nt

[Betty Karlson]

104. Free tuition is not status quo, and not profitable for the 1 %.

There's your answer: but at least Clinton got some campaign donations out of it. That's always good. Selling Third Way is very difficult these days: it takes a lot of campaign contributions.

[Enthusiast]

105. They are worse than you can possibly imagine.

[passiveporcupine]

106. Well well well

How many more of these little surprises (not) are going to keep popping up?

[grasswire]

107. whack a mole

Life's a carnival for the Clintons.

[Faux pas]

110. K N R

[amborin]

114. kicking