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The GI Bill, designed to help veterans live the American dream, is being gobbled up by for-profit colleges that spend lavishly on marketing but can leave veterans with worthless degrees."
Nowhere is this a bigger problem than in California, where nearly 2 out of every 3 GI Bill dollars go to for-profit companies—institutions created to make money.
In fact, The Center for Investigative Reporting found that since a generous new GI Bill for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans went into effect in 2009, more than $600 million has gone to California schools so substandard that they have fail to qualify for state financial aid.
There is little oversight to ensure the effectiveness of the program.
On a Friday morning in early May, a team of inspectors from the California VA pulled into the parking lot and headed to a conference room, where the college’s staff had laid out piles of student veterans’ transcripts and financial records.
The audit’s purpose is to ensure that GI Bill money is properly spent, but auditors don’t sit in on classes or review the qualifications of instructors. “That’s not a part of the visit at all,” said Latanaya Johnson, one of the agency’s senior inspectors.
Auditors look exclusively at paperwork, she said, to make sure schools aren’t billing the government for students who don’t exist. No one from the state or federal government is checking to see if the education taxpayers are paying for is helping veterans find jobs. (read more)
23 comments:
The guaranteed student loan programs are massive slush funds.
I'm no political campaigner or cause monger. But, the only solution is to shut the slush funds down.
Make a bottomless slush fund available to grifters and college administrators (if you can tell the difference between the two) and burden young people with massive debt.
What could go wrong?
Let's start with the concept of "for profit" colleges. It's a concept that carries an air of disdain.
All colleges are for profit. Their objective is having revenues exceed expenses. Colleges that are non-profit call this surplus 'retained earnings' on their financial reports rather than 'net profit'. Whatever it is called, the concept is the same. What is different, though, is that the government nannies who seemingly hate profits are totally okay with retained earnings. Many 'not-for-profit' and public universities have staggering amounts of retained earnings funds, often in the billions of dollars.
As for University of Phoenix - their low graduation rate is in part due to their open doors admission policy. They let in anyone. It's not unreasonable to expect that many of those admitted aren't able to do college level work. On the other hand, most employers view a diploma from University of Phoenix as the equivalent of sending in boxtops for a fake certificate. I say this as a former employer who looked at the transcripts of people who earned MBAs from that college. The course work isn't challenging, when compared with other universities' programs for the same degree.
Using the GI Bill to learn auto mechanics, or plumbing, or electrician work, or similar skills is very worthwhile. Local technical colleges are the best venues for that, as their course offerings reflect the needs of local employers.
Last, the government nannies seem utterly disinterested in the useless degrees and concomitant student debt incurred by students at not-for-profit universities. A graduate with $100K of debt (or spending under the GI Bill) and a degree in sociology, for example, is every bit as screwed as the University of Phoenix students in the article.
The entirety of this student loan business, both veteran and non-veteran, baffles me. The only change I notice since I worked full time, went to a state university at night, and enlisted upon gradation, is the cost of schools have sky rocketed...on a parallel path with the availability of student loans.
Have the schools' programs improved equivalent to the tuition jumps of 4:1 up to 10:1 compared to my college days in the 1960's?
I didn't read the article closely enough to figure out whether the author thinks that veterans are naive victims or cunning thieves.
Like Michael Haz said, a lot of for-profit are trade schools, which makes a lot of sense.
On the other hand, using the GI Bill to get a BA in English lit or philosophy or, heaven forbid, gender studies from a very reputable college may be equally or more of a waste of taxpayer money. Not necessarily mind you, people can use those degrees well, but many do not.
And absolutely all schools are "for profit" in one way or another. Some hide behind lofty categories, but look at the salaries of administrators, the building programs, the perks for students (who are both the customers and employees). When schools hype the fact they have climbing walls and 25 different restaurants on campus, they're not high-minded sacrificial learning institutions. They're catering to consumers, like every business does.
Here is a link to put some figures to University Costs.
I'll note that my "university" costs were $336 per year (3 quarters) versus the average of $298 cited for 1964-65. Somewhat higher but within reason.
The average for the same course work in 2006-7 jumped to $28,524 per year of 3 quarters course work.
Holy scrap tailings dudes, the cost in 2007 was 85 times higher than in 1965! My 10:1 ratio was ignorant modesty I guess. Inflation just hasn't been that great, so who is getting rich?
Behind every financial scheme is a politician with a bad idea.
It took the VA waiting list deaths for this to make the news.
Makes you wonder.
Did the article ever offer any evidence that the "degree mill" degrees weren't worth at least as much as a "University of" degree in Art or Sociology?
Or was "for profit" the only proof they needed?
I admire the business model used by College of The Ozarks.
There is no tuition, every student works.
When I got out of the military, many years ago, I was immediately inundated with mailings and phone calls about making sure I was making good use of my GI bill money. AIC, usually for a variety of correspondence classes in accounting or business. The pitches were somewhat compelling, especially for those of us dumped back on the block and trying to figure out what to do in life, besides working at the same grocery or gas station you worked at before you enlisted.
Things are similar now, and different. The pitches from various colleges are the same or more intense, but the money is much greater and the temptation to use both GI Bill and student loans to finance the venture was one that I didn't have. I could only abuse my GI Bill, which fortunately I didn't.
Some states (Wisconsin is the example I know of) have programs that waive tuition for eligible veterans who lived in the state before enlistment.
In Wisconsin, the waiver includes all state universities and technical colleges.
What Shout said.
This is part of what Insta means by the Education Bubble.
Haz...if that's true, vis a vis Wisconsin tuition waivers for veterans, I am impressed. And not much impresses me. If true, this concept for veterans does impress me big time.
Given I'd graduated before enlisting, it would not have helped me much, but given the code of Soldiers and Marines to watch out for and care for those to our left and to our right, it is a fitting idea.
Why can't we do this nationwide today?
Aridog, the tuition waiver was another one of Governor Walker's initiatives. It's a GREAT deal for Wisconsin vets. I don't know if the GI Bill would cover their housing/living expenses, but if it does, there's essentially a free college or tech school education for vets.
I'd have to double-check, but I believe Wisconsin also waives tuition for kids who enlist in the National Guard.
You'll notice that the endowment-rich Ivies don't offer these programs.
The online college Western Governors School has a good reputation. And they don't have you pay by the credit hour, but let you get as much done as you can per semester.
Aridog said...
The entirety of this student loan business, both veteran and non-veteran, baffles me. The only change I notice since I worked full time, went to a state university at night, and enlisted upon gradation, is the cost of schools have sky rocketed...on a parallel path with the availability of student loans.
Have the schools' programs improved equivalent to the tuition jumps of 4:1 up to 10:1 compared to my college days in the 1960's?
This is also why your house is so expensive.
Haz, Great analysis!
Degree mills = any post secondary school which charges over-priced tuition = almost most of them.
There is no way college should cost $40,000 per year IMHO.
If the electorate thinks we need to continue to give financial support for post-secondary training / education, I recommend we just give everyone between the age of 19-22 a flat subsidy of let's say 40,000 [$10K per year for four years] and they can do whatever they want with it - pay for college, tech school, go surfing, put it up their nose, etc.
Then we can all stop hearing BS sob stories that "oh woe is me, I could not afford yada yada yada when I was young". And we can stop this bull about which schools are worthy and which are not AND most importantly, kids will now be careful about going to the most expensive schools when they will be, in effect, spending their own money.
Aridog- next time you are in a Cracker Barrel, check out those booklets they sell based on your birth year. The booklets show the cost of stuff from that year and are nice birthday gifts.
When I looked at mine [1952b birth year] I found Milk, gasoline etc have gone up about 10-12 times while, as you note, college has increased by 50-100 times.
1. In fairness to our Democrat friends, the Wisconsin GI Bill first passed in 2005 under Governor Jim Doyle. It was somewhat more limited and was in financial difficulty when Walker took office. Walker and the Republican legislature corrected those financial problems and expanded the coverage.
2. Don't read the comments on the article at The Daily Beast. A few of their commenters let slip their true feelings about service members. Fuck 'em. Those commenters, that is.
3. As someone noted, the for-profit colleges are a threat to the gravy train that traditional college educators and administrators ride to "work" every day (or two days a week for some. Tilt!). Any criticism of them from the left must be evaluated with that in mind.
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