Education Sector in the News

Policy Director Kevin Carey comments on a recent Senate HELP Committee hearing on for-profit colleges.

From "For-profit colleges: Do they shortchange students?" by Stacy Teicher Khadaroo.

"...In the 1990s, a number of small for-profit schools were shut down for outright fraud. Today, the landscape is more complex.

"The for-profits now are regionally accredited colleges [and] big publicly traded corporations.... One can argue that they're too expensive and criticize them for their default rates, but it's not the same as saying they're in a straight rip-off business," says Kevin Carey, policy director of Education Sector in Washington, in a phone interview. "The bottom line is the reason this industry has grown is that they're serving a market that the traditional colleges are either unwilling or unable to serve."

Loopholes in current regulations have allowed troubling practices to continue - such as schools giving recruiters financial incentives for the number of students they enroll - according to witness Kathleen Tighe, the US Department of Education's inspector general.

The Education Department recently released new proposed rules intended to close such loopholes and make information about for-profit colleges clearer to consumers.

Under one rule, schools would have to provide prospective students with graduation and job-placement rates for various programs. A further development of a rule known as "gainful employment" is still in the works. It's controversial because it could potentially hold for-profit schools accountable for whether their graduates earn average salaries high enough to enable them to pay off their debts. ..."

Read more Christian Science Monitor coverage.