The Question For-Profit Colleges Need Answer

      It's their party and they'll whine if they want to. Or it has been their party for years of Reaganism and they can't stand that its changing. They are crying about a witch-hunt when what's truly been a witch-hunt is how they and the college lenders have treated students. 

     See my previous posts on the for-profits

    http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2015/07/obama-for-profit-colleges-and-tale-of.htm

   http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2015/07/president-obama-for-profit-colleges-and.html

    They are beating their breasts on the gainful employment law the President finally won court clearance to use last week. The industry is crying witch hunt. 

    "Supporters call the regulatory moves long overdue. But the industry denounces them as a witch hunt."

   “We’ve come to expect these unjust assaults,” said Gene Feichtner, president and chief operating officer of the huge for-profit chain ITT Technical Institute, which has been sued by CFPB, faces fraud charges from SEC and is under investigation by 16 state attorneys general. “Let there be no presumption here that we believe we’ll be treated fairly.”

   Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/barack-obama-pushes-for-profit-colleges-to-the-brink-119613.html#ixzz3eeF98we8

    Assault. Right, assault is what the for-profits and the student lenders have done to students since the Reagan Revolution. 

    They are claiming this is going to destroy the industry but to me the better question is assuming this is true so what? Does the industry add value to society or not? It's not hard to see the costs. 

   Recall that this is an industry that claims it can't survive without a huge government subsidy. The student lenders along among all lenders get a government guarantee. The only thing that can justify this is that on a net basis of costs and benefits they add value. 

  The costs of the industry and of the subsidy are clear. Lots of students saddled with debt who never got the high paying jobs they were promised. What exactly is the value? I know there are people that are here going to hide behind the ideology of the great importance of college education but I think that at best that is a dated ideology. In an increasing service orientated 'Uber economy' is this any longer true if it ever were?

  http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2015/06/when-i-grow-up-i-want-to-be-like-nick.html

  http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2015/06/whats-next-for-uber-economy-part-2.html

  It seems to me that a big part of making the Uber economy work for the median worker is doing something about the for-profits and student lenders. College loans are simply at epidemic levels. If this status quo are the conditions that the industry needs to survive and thrive then maybe it doesn't deserve to survive. 

 

  In any case, the burden of proof is on them. Prove that they on a net basis are a value added industry for society.