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    "Companies seek rollback of tough Obama-era regulations that threaten to lead to school closures" "Investors, in turn, have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into education stocks since the election, hopeful that a change of regime would spur a resurgence in the for-profit college sector"
    6 years ago by @prophe
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    Despite higher fee, these schools are a necessity till we develop alternatives Last week, we delved into whether the furore over school fee is justified. Taking it forward, in this second part, we look into whether private ‘for-profit’ schools are flourishing despite government and government-aided schools being affordable. How big is the private school sector? According to a report by Ernst & Young — ‘Private Sector’s Contribution to K-12 Education in India’, 25 per cent of all schools (Kindergarten to Class 12) in India are under private management. Their enrolment has crossed 40 per cent (urban and rural together) of the total enrolment. This number increases to 55 per cent when you look at only the secondary and higher secondary enrolment. The Annual Status of Education Report 2016 points out that this is not just an urban phenomenon. Enrolment in private schools (age 6 to 14) even in rural India is increasing — from 18.7 per cent in 2006 to 30.8 per cent in 2014. Every poor family spends a disproportionate amount of its earnings to send her child to a private school. Clearly, private schooling is big and is growing in both urban and rural India. Government Spend A study by Ambrish Dongre and Avani Kapur titled ‘India’s Spend on Elementary Education’ states that the government (Central and across 16 States) median spend on elementary education (Class 1 – 8) works out to Rs 11,225 per student enrolled in 2011-12. This looks quite low because it is the average across India and across all types of schools in rural and urban areas. A better benchmark is ‘government-spend’ in Kendriya Vidyalayas that provide the best quality among government schools. Elementary school education (Class 1 to 8) is free in KVs and is subsidised thereafter. The fee notified by the KV Sangathan is nil for these classes. From Class 9 to 12, a tuition fee of Rs 200-400 per month is claimed from boys. In addition, Rs 650 per month is taken for computers and Vidyalaya Vikas Nidhi, with exemptions for certain categories of students.
    6 years ago by @prophe
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    Educational companies have seen their stock surge since the election. While the market as a whole has done well since Nov. 8, major companies including K12 Inc., Career Education Corp., DeVry Education Group Inc. and Capella Education Co. have grown faster than indexes. Laureate Education, Inc., which educates over one million post-secondary students in dozens of countries internationally, also concluded its (second) IPO in recent days. The company was publicly traded until 2007 when a group of investors took it private. Optimism and growth in the for-profit education market could mean changes to how the public thinks about higher education and career readiness. Many of the bigger higher education corporations tend to be more nimble in where they set up shop and more likely to build partnerships with business, said Guilbert Hentschke, a dean and professor emeritus at the USC Rossier School of Education. Many of the firms are focused on ensuring a local labor market is stocked with a stream of specifically accredited workers, compared to traditional non-profit four-year degree programs focused on the liberal arts. There are also signs of increasing collaboration between for-profit education companies and private non-profit institutions. Yesterday, Vanderbilt University joined with dozens of other schools in partnering with 2U Inc. to launch online degree offerings through its graduate school of education program. A big reason the for-profit education sector has seen renewed buoyancy in recent weeks is tied to the end of the Obama era. Hentschke, who is also affiliated with the Ernst & Young consultancy Parthenon-EY, said in an interview that the new administration and the new education secretary, Betsy DeVos, have not given a specific indication of their attitude toward for-profit education. Nevertheless, Trump’s business-oriented disposition and DeVos’s preference for free market fixes to the education system have not been lost on investors. The mere “absence of negative signals” represents a major shif
    6 years ago by @prophe
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    Laureate Education just became the first IPO of a company that's legally allowed to sacrifice profit in exchange for purpose, though the for-profit education industry has had a hard time finding any purpose at all. On February 1, Douglas Becker made history when he rang the opening bell of the Nasdaq. His company, Laureate Education, Inc.—the world’s largest for-profit college network, with more than 1 million students enrolled at over 200 campuses in 28 countries—had just launched an initial public offering. IPO filings happen every day, but this is the first public benefit corporation to ever be publicly traded. Laureate is listed on the exchange as LAUR and raised $490 million by offering 35 million shares at a price of $14, slightly lower than expectations. Benefit corporations are distinct from a traditional corporation. Rather than a singular focus on creating financial value, a benefit corporation is explicitly mandated to pursue positive social and environmental impact along
    6 years ago by @prophe
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    Remember when candidate Trump promised to make college affordable for everyone? Yeah, that’s not happening.  Instead, Trump is turning to the notorious corporateers who have been pouring McDiplomas on the nation’s steaming trillion-dollar student debt pyre to shake up higher education. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s controversial pick for a special assistant—for-profit college corporate lawyer Robert Eitel, may be a portent. As counsel for Bridgepoint, the parent company of the now-tainted brands of Ashford University and University of the Rockies, was forced by the Obama administration last year to refund $24 million in tuition and debt costs to students, plus civil damages, after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau found that its heavy marketing scheme for its online programs, and “deceived its students into taking out loans that cost more than advertised.” Bridgepoint is just one player in a sector of for-profit institutions that are known for exploiting millions in federal loans and grants, providing substandard academics and granting worthless diplomas. While many companies were reined in by regulators under Obama, the industry as a whole has survived, and is now poised for revival under Trump. In fact, even those companies penalized for defrauding students have not been held fully accountable over federal student debts; Bridgepoint’s sanction, for example, did not encompass federal loans, even though graduates are typically chained to about $33,000 in taxpayer-subsidized debt. But the for-profit college companies hobbled by financial crisis under Obama might see a major resurrection under Trump’s and DeVos’s deregulatory agenda. One tactic may be for belly-up for-profits to reinvent themselves as nonprofits, in order to skirt future regulations and wriggle out of liability for financial abuses. The Corinthian college chain, for example, following bankruptcy, was placed under the control of a nominal “nonprofit” called Zenith (which was later exposed for having compromising financial entangle
    6 years ago by @prophe
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