The buyers think what they're buying will appreciate in value, making them rich in the future. The product grows more and more elaborate, and more and more expensive, but the expense is offset by cheap credit provided by sellers eager to encourage buyers to buy.
Buyers see that everyone else is taking on mounds of debt, and so are more comfortable when they do so themselves; besides, for a generation, the value of what they're buying has gone up steadily. What could go wrong? Everything continues smoothly until, at some point, it doesn't.As Reynolds details, we are all told that you have to get a college degree to succeed, hence the high demand for seats at colleges. This allows them to keep raising tuition rates. They have to raise tuition rates because, as the quasi-governmental institutions that they are (whether private or public, really, but mostly the latter), they don't know how to be thrifty. That's why many public colleges have palatial dorms, state-of-the-art rec centers, and 24 vice presidents.
If only there was some alternative to the standard 4-year college. Well, one is arising, and it is the for-profit college. You see commercials for these places, which are career-oriented. No Women's Studies majors at these institutions. But of course, these colleges are under attack:
Investigations have pointed to grade inflation, misleading success stories and questionable recruiting tactics.I'd say traditional universities are guilty of all of those sins, particularly the Ivy league for #1 and law schools for #2 and #3.
Any guesses as to who is pushing these attacks?
There is, from a legal perspective, blood in the water.
"You don't have to be an ambulance chaser to know this is a vulnerable industry," Urdan said.
Experts say it's a trend being pushed by increased media attention and by lawyers who see the lawsuits as low-risk, high-reward opportunities. They cost little to file, particularly when compared with environmental or medical claims that require costly experts and expensive tests.There are also questions about ability of graduates to get jobs. But again, it's traditional universities that are offering the majors in Minority Studies and other such useless majors with limited job prospects.
All told, I think for-profit universities are a legitimate alternative, and one of the few hopes we have of getting traditional universities to lower their tuition rates. I think that's exactly why they're getting attacked. However, if for-profit universities are guilty of anything, then its time to train our investigative eye on traditional universities, who are guilty of many of the sins that private universities are accused of.
From the NPR reporting I've heard, the major sin of for-profit universities is that they are for-profit. I have heard examples of problems, but they seem to be scam schools, not respectable, proven institutions like the University of Phoenix. The idea seems to be that if the board of directors is out to make money instead of losing it year after year, they must be taking advantage of students.
ReplyDeleteI think that something that is often overlooked in this discussion is the percentage of parents now willing (and able, through debt) to pay for their kids college education. My grandfather and day both paid their own way through school. Perhaps costs were limited in the past because schools knew that there was only so much money a student could make working part-time and in the summer.