Boom Times for Parchment Profiteers

[marmar]

from Too Much: A Commentary on Excess and Inequality:




Boom Times for Parchment Profiteers
September 11, 2010

The tax dollars we spend on higher ed ought to have one purpose and one purpose alone: to educate students. So why do we let these dollars mint mega millionaires?

By Sam Pizzigati


Most students who attend college today are getting an education. But more and more are not getting the education they expected. They’re getting fleeced — by for-profit colleges that are making millions for their top execs and saddling ill-prepared students with many thousands of dollars in crushing debt.

These for-profit schools have become the hottest phenomenon in American higher education. Yet two decades ago they barely existed. In 1990, less than 1 percent of U.S. college students attended a for-profit school. Today for-profits enroll nearly 10 percent of the nation’s college students.

What’s driving this enrollment explosion? Your tax dollars. For-profit colleges enroll a modest tenth of the nation’s college students. But they collect — from the federal government — nearly a quarter of the nation’s college student aid dollars, over $21 billion in all.

Those billions have translated into multi-million paychecks for the power suits who run the for-profit educational industry. Over the last three years, the top five execs at three industry giants — the ITT Technical Institute, Corinthian Colleges, and the Apollo Group — took home a combined $130 million.

These execs, charges financial analyst Steven Eisman, are operating “marketing machines masquerading as universities.” Most all of these “marketing machines” follow the same basic three-step formula. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://toomuchonline.org/boom-times-for-parchment-profiteers/

[Jackpine Radical]

1. The miracle of privatization.

Those old public universities were so inefficient (at transferring government largesse into corporate hands).

[KoKo]

2. It's a scam and should be stopped.

[JohnWxy]

3. RECOMMENDED.