In discussions about the future of higher education, there's often plenty of hand-wringing over the precarious fate of the hundreds of small, tuition-dependent private colleges scattered throughout the country.
From 2001-2 to 2009-10, the proportion of Pell grant recipients attending for-profit colleges rose from 15 to 25 percent, while declining from 35 percent to 32 percent at community colleges. Given the much higher prices at for profit institutions, this has meant a huge -- but hidden -- tuition increase for low-income students.
Since former Congressman Steve Gunderson (R-WI) was named in January as the new head of the largest for-profit college association, APSCU, there has been talk that he might take a “kinder, gentler” approach to leading the troubled industry, which has pursued a take-no-prisoners lobbying approach in Washington.
American universities, like American companies, have been looking to expand into new markets. They open campuses overseas. And now many private colleges are looking for growth back home, building satellite campuses around the United States.
Tensions are escalating between private colleges and public universities in a battle to win state education dollars. At issue is the $49 million in Iowa Tuition Grant money the state gave last year to more than 18,000 students attending Iowa’s private colleges and universities, even as the Legislature slashed funds to public universities.
Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, a Democrat, has been on a crusade over the past few years against for-profit colleges. You know, schools such as the University of Phoenix or the DeVry Institute, educational outfits operated by profit-seeking businesses.
The rapid growth of for-profit colleges over the past decade has been aided by billion-dollar ad campaigns on daytime television, the Internet and highway billboards across the country.
15%: Increase in private university tuition from 5 years ago New data shows that university endowments averaged total returns of over 19% for the fiscal year ending June 2011, according to the National Association of College and University Business Officers and Commonfund, a nonprofit asset manager. Although this marks the second consecutive year of gains, parents shouldn't expect lower tuition costs until schools have had more years of strong growth.
Expanding access to public education should not be about punishing wealthier nonprofit universities. Rather, the solution lies in reinvigorating our cultural and economic commitment to public education, and making better use of public money to subsidize those nonprofit entities that work to benefit our communities, rather than shareholder wallets.
President Obama will sign an executive order today at a Georgia military base that will force colleges to disclose more information about financial aid and graduation rates, as well as requiring the Department of Defense to set rules for recruiting at military installations. It will also restrict the use of the term "GI Bill" in marketing and recruitment. While the order will apply to all colleges, it appears to be aimed at the for-profit sector.
Critics of recent efforts to regulate for-profit colleges have suggested that the Obama Administration is waging a “war” on for-profit universities. The reality is exactly the opposite: the for-profit sector is challenging a centuries-old practice of separating philanthropy from business.
The rapid growth of for-profit colleges over the past decade has been aided by billion-dollar ad campaigns on daytime television, the Internet and highway billboards across the country.
In light of weak federal regulations and lackluster completion rates at for-profit colleges, students should be armed with the kind of questions they need to ask to make sure the colleges deliver on what they promise.
The chairs and tables in the dining hall at Atlantic Union College in South Lancaster are lined up neatly, as if lunch is about to be served. But the doors are locked, the giant clock on the wall has stopped, and the notice on the window is anything but welcoming: “This building has been secured and is off-limits until further notice.”