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Who Profits?
By Kate Burch

The recent closing of ITT Tech was the latest of a series of successful assaults on for-profit colleges by the Obama administration.  Our benevolent leaders claim, of course, that they are simply trying to protect students from predators in the marketplace who will charge high tuition rates, leave the students with piles of debt, and provide less chance of gainful employment than state-funded institutions.

While there are, of course, some for-profits that cheat, the statistics actually reveal higher graduation rates and higher post-graduation employment numbers for those who complete programs at for-profit schools. 

We are all aware, also, of the huge increases in tuition costs and accompanying dismal results of the public colleges.  And aren’t many of us dismayed to observe the ballooning numbers of staff and burgeoning infrastructure of our schools?  These schools are in competition, it seems, to offer the most luxurious accommodations and amenities to their potential customers, all the while affording sketchy prospects post-graduation.  We see plenty of examples: the new Ph.D. working as a barista, the unemployed 30-year-old still living in Mom’s basement; a Women’s Studies graduate with no prayer of ever putting that degree to use. 

With colleges, as with elementary and secondary schools, while more federal funding has flowed in, the costs keep getting higher.  Federal subsidies actually make costs higher because they result in increased enrollment, more building, and administrative bloat.   There are now whole departments, such as IT, that deal with functions that previously were handled by professors.  Many professors actually teach very little, spending their time instead doing research and writing (which may be read by no one); this brings about the need to hire many adjunct faculty.  Excessive and onerous regulations tied to federal aid and involvement add to costs.   Whatever government touches tends to become more expensive, less accessible, and of lesser quality. 

An important issue is the dysfunctional belief that everyone should go to college.  If college is to be genuine higher education, it is an endeavor that is appropriate only for those who are intellectually equipped for scholarship—about one-quarter of the population.  This sounds elitist, and it is.  In truth, a person does not become educated by warming a seat in a classroom and passively receiving information imparted by an instructor.  Learning is something that one accomplishes through individual effort and practice, with appropriate guidance and consultation, as needed.  Attempting to make “higher education” available to all can have no other outcome but dilution and degradation of the commodity.  It is not news that the performance of students coming out of our public elementary and secondary schools is bad.  It’s also worth considering that the prolonged dependency of young people who are expected to be in school and out of the work force until their mid-twenties presents their parents and society with a tremendous and unnecessary burden. 

One approach that would be beneficial would be more emphasis of real-world training for useful work, instead of marketing of frivolous and useless degrees.  Most jobs still do not require higher education. 

We should also think about what might be the motivation for the political class to stand so stalwartly for public education, and to demonize any training or educational program that is not under state control.  Could it be that those who represent the state have a vested interest in ensuring that students will be taught or led to believe only what the state wishes them to believe: that they must trust the government, rather than their parents; that striving to excel is somehow unfair; that they must give unquestioning obedience to the state?  Many well-meaning people truly believe that government-controlled education is a public good.   I guess that depends on your definition of good.  As William T. Harris, one-time U.S. Commissioner of Education, said, “Our schools have been scientifically designed to prevent over-education from happening.  The average American (should be) content with their humble role in life…” 


 
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