The Senate committee found nothing good in its study of for-profit colleges. Over half of the students enrolled do not get a degree and they leave with a pile of debt. The average CEO compensation is over $7 million. Executives and shareholders are the major beneficiaries of the billions spent by government on for-profit higher education. Their expertise is in marketing and recruiting.
The senators seemed to be surprised that private firms are more concerned with profits than they are with providing a good product. They don't need to produce a good product as long as they can sell a high priced product to desperate customers who can use government subsidized loans to pay for it. It is not much different than selling sub prime mortgages to poorly informed consumers who believe in the American dream of home ownership.
Unfortunately, it is not likely that Congress will do anything about the problem. For-profit higher education is performing just as it supposed to function. It is making a lot people rich and their lobby is good at purchasing support from politicians. It is just another form of predatory government. The major goal of predatory government is to take tax dollars, that are collected to provide public goods, and funnel them to hucksters for private gain. Their supporters in Congress will argue that profit seeking businesses are more efficient at providing public services than institutions without a profit incentive.
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