For-Profit Colleges Need a Lesson in Restraint
This article, Why government must rein in for-profit colleges, notes several disturbing statistics about the rampant unfair practices of for-profit colleges. These schools are taking people’s money without really educating them or preparing them for the job market. But beyond that, the article notes examples of really shady practices, like signing people up for classes they didn’t request. This needs to end. The authors of this opinion support a regulatory proposal for government to better monitor and limit the extent of for-profit colleges doling out government-backed student loans.
Students trying to improve their job prospects shouldn’t be duped into taking on crushing debt in exchange for the promise of a future job that will probably never materialize. And taxpayers shouldn’t be stuck holding the bag when these Faustian bargains inevitably go bad. The proposed rules are necessary to keep a small, destructive group of for-profit training programs from taking advantage of vulnerable young adults already reeling from the effects of the economic downturn.