"A child's learning is the function more of the characteristics of his classmates than those of the teacher." James Coleman, 1972

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

For-Profit or "Investor Funded," It's the Same Diploma Mills

While the Washington Post is on life support financially, and even more so now that the for-profit diploma mill, Kaplan U. has been implicated in the loan repayment scandal, WaPo has the audacity to offer Robert Silberman, the dissembling CEO of Strayer University, a big op-ed space to make the case for the college profiteer cause.  "For-profit" has become such a toxic label that Silberman, whose own diploma mill is in the low 20s in repayment rates of federally-insured studetnt loans, has come up with a substitute for "for-profit."  How about "investor funded educational institutions?"  Does that make these crooked scammers sound any more respectable, even though their exploitation of the poor remains their ticket to fabulous wealth while offering worthless degrees?  Didn't think so.  A taste from WaPo:
. . . .Taxpaying, investor-funded universities can provide underserved students with high-quality education and prepare them for personal and professional success. Recently, some policymakers and commentators have questioned the value of investor-funded educational institutions. They claim that such institutions are systemically incapable of meeting their academic missions. In fact, regionally accredited, investor-funded universities that offer bachelor's and master's degrees are already a critical part of our nation's higher education fabric. . . .

No comments:

Post a Comment