As discussions about the future of for-profit colleges intensify, my email inbox has begun to fill with inquiries. Why haven’t I weighed in? What do I think—is Congress on the right track? What does my recent conspicuous silence portend?
While I’m flattered (and a little confused) by a seeming desire to hear my opinion, the truth is I haven’t been ready to provide one. Over the past few months I’ve spent a lot more time thinking about the for-profits and the tough questions their growing presence in higher education raise. I’ve struggled with an intellectual exercise of sorts, attempting to set aside the financial interests associated with the sector and simply consider whether common objections to the industry would exist even if its colleges were not-for-profit. It’s not easy to sleep at night when wrestling with complex demons like that.
I’ve come to the conclusion that yes, objections would continue. We’d be worried about the quality of what’s being proffered, what students are actually learning, how hard the colleges are working to recruit students not really ready for college work, how much debt folks are graduating with relative to their new income, etc.
Here’s the rub: We should have the same concerns about our current public and private non-profit institutions of higher education. Many of us do have these concerns. We are just less vocal about them, perhaps because it is so much easier to object to treating people badly while making a buck, compared to treating people badly while not making a buck.
Our concerns are well placed, but they are also too narrow. We are looking for trouble only under a single lamplight, simply because that’s the spot illuminated. We need to look more broadly. There is a reason enrollment in the for-profit sector is growing, and it has at least partly to do with student demand. Our public colleges and universities aren’t sufficiently equipped to do the job—and blame for that is shared by states and localities, institutions, researchers, and taxpayers. It’s a little hard to know where the buck stops in that situation. It’s not so hard in the case of for-profits—so we disparage them more easily.
I’m not saying I’ve become a fan of the for-profits, or that my worries about how they are serving students have been allayed. Admittedly, the more I learn, the more I become somewhat more impressed–for example, by the innovative efforts of some to help transfer students and older students find a more fluid and efficient way to a credential. There are some examples of that kind of work at public institutions, but it feels a bit less “outside the box.”
The current discussion in D.C. is worth having. It needs to be broadened and deepened. More voices need to enter the conversation. It’s in the interest of students all over the country for it to continue.
5 Responses to Keep an Open Mind
edwarducation - June 24, 2010 at 2:48 pm
Having followed this issue for a while, it’s refreshing to see someone taking an unbiased look at it. I, for one, and thankful that I was able to choose a for-profit school, it’s the right choice for me. If the government takes away my financial aid, I’m done. It’s not fair. You can’t tell a free people that they can make their own choices in life and then limit those choices.
ginnyontop - June 24, 2010 at 2:52 pm
For someone to think that non-profit schools are not taking in more money than they pay or aren’t charging more than they have to is misguided at best. For-profit or non-profit makes no difference, it’s the student’s choice, or at least it should be. I have many friends who attended for-profit schools that are now being targeted and quite happy with not only the education they recieved but the job placement help they got too. I can say the opposite for friends who went to non-profit schools. It’s an individual’s choice.
vldavis - June 25, 2010 at 9:09 am
All of higher education is quickly reaching a point where it will undergo greater and greater public scrutiny. The for-profits are merely the first wave of institutions to do so. Undoubtedly there are problems with some of these institutions and some of their students do graduate with a tremendous debt load. But I have also seen my students from a prestigious liberat arts college graduate with an equally crippling debt load that they still struggle to repay. Many parts of higher education have been unwilling to think about the dirty word “efficiency,” and certainly the institution of higher education is one that is not known for embracing change. Maybe 30 or 40 years ago that worked; but it no longer does. Can we blame students who reach out to the for-profits when those are some of the only schools that seem willing to provide them with flexible opportunities to pursue a degree? Until higher education beyond community colleges learns how to become more responsive to an ever increasing non-traditional student body the for-profits are going to continue to thrive. They offer something that many unviersities still don’t offer- flexibility.
mheffleychron - June 25, 2010 at 9:22 am
Thank you, Sara and commenters 1-3! I just posted a comment on the “Senators Vow to Crack Down” piece that echoes the points you all make here. I’ve seen both non-profit and for-profit (and student loan) worlds up close and personal for decades now, as both student and teacher, and have read the Chronicle about as long; the issues for me go to their roots in a larger sociocultural systemic context. Generally, in this country, our problems functioning as we should just seem to be the same across fields like educationm, business, politics: a lack of intelligence, competence, humanity when it comes to envisioning and establishing systems that respect people the way that a purportedly democratic society does, coupled with a real drive to game things so that the worst kinds of dog-eat-dog impulses are fostered instead. How long, o Lord…? ;>}I’ve been living by the old blues song line “I don’t worry ’bout a thing, ’cause I know nothing’s going to be all right.” The silver lining on this gloomy prognosis is that I continue to be amazed that things aren’t even worse than they are, and that the best and brightest among us still find ways to survive and thrive, and even change things now and then.
22260556 - June 25, 2010 at 11:39 am
Thank you, Sara. You wrote what many of us in “traditional” institutions know to be true. One of the key questions is this: where are the leaders in the non-profit sector who will act on what they know to be true?