For-Profit Colleges Deserve a Butt-kicking!

The Obama administration has started to come down on a horrible scam perpetrated on people trying to better themselves: the slimy collection of for-profit universities that fill daytime TV with their ads. These schools enlist anyone, promise great jobs after graduation, keep the kids in school as long as possible while they collect federal subsidies, charge outrageous tuition while providing an almost worthless education, and leave their students deeply in debt. For instance, an associates degree at a for-profit school would cost about 10 times the cost of earning it at a community college, and the credits would not likely transfer to a decent 4 year college.

I am no expert on these schools, but I did teach 2 courses at ITT-Tecj a few years ago. I quit for 3 reasons: They made me wear a tie, they paid shit, and I felt like part of a scam by working there. The students I taught were attempting to get bachelors degrees, but were far too stupid to earn a degree of any kind at any decent school. I passes most of them because I felt sorry for the way they were being ripped off by ITT and told that their degree would be of value in future employment. The text book I used was a piece of crap, pre-packaged for the class and sold only via ITT. The course was badly designed. And, there were myriad rules for faculty to follow, all of them designed to make sure that ITT kept its acreditation, which, for good reason, was always in danger of going away.

I will say the people who worked at the Denver ITT seemed to be decent people, at least the faculty. However, there were constant emails about keeping retention up.....seemed to be all the dean cared about. In fact, the people I was teaching were not learning anything, were not capable or interested in learning anything, and should have been told to leave and save their money.

In contrast, by the way, Front Range Community College, where I have taught for 8 years, has low costs, people who look out for the students best interests, and the credits earned are automatically transferable to CU or most other schools. And they let me teach in shorts and sneakers!

Kudos to Obama for clamping down on this scam.