HIGHER EDUCATION
For-profit schools grow -- as do complaints
South Florida has seen an explosion in the growth of for-profit colleges. But do they deliver the goods?
BY MICHAEL VASQUEZ
MRVASQUEZ@MIAMIHERALD.COM
The advertisements are everywhere -- on local television stations it's Everest Institute, or Brown Mackie College. On South Florida highway billboards, it's the University of Phoenix. All are selling a quick, convenient college education, and the dream of a better life.
In this economy, people are buying, and in the process the schools -- built to make a profit -- are thriving.
What's less clear, though, is how much students actually benefit. For-profit colleges, many with night classes and entire degree programs available online, are built to fit seamlessly into the busy life of a working adult. That customer-friendly class structure gets plenty of folks in the door, but what happens after they leave?
HEAVY DEBT
Department of Education statistics suggest that many graduates struggle mightily under heavy debt, as for-profit schools are far more expensive than in-state tuition at community colleges or state universities.
For-profit colleges have existed for decades, but the sour economy, the rise of online-only degrees, and new limits on enrollment at community colleges have together contributed to explosive growth at these schools that far outpaces the rising enrollment in U.S. higher education overall. For profits' enrollment now tops three million nationwide -- a more than 60 percent jump from 2004-2005.
With the sector's rising fortunes have come increased questions. For-profits still represent only about 9 percent of all college students, yet account for an eye-popping 44 percent of student loan defaults.
``That debt has serious, life-changing consequences for students who take out these loans,'' said Rich Williams of US PIRG, a consumer-advocacy group. ``Some programs are just so toxic that students should not be allowed to enroll in them.''
Other facts about for-profits are raising eyebrows as well, including:
• Employment placement figures and projected salaries are in some cases suspect. A California Attorney General's office investigation found Corinthian Schools Inc. -- the parent company of Everest Institute, which has five South Florida campuses -- routinely misled prospective students regarding how much graduates earned, as well as what percentage found work. A massage therapy program was touted as having an 80 percent placement rate, for example, when the true figure was 40 percent. Of course, these days, a degree from a traditional state college offers no guarantee of a job.
• For-profit colleges are so focused on marketing that the money schools spend on advertising rivals how much is spent on teachers' salaries and other education-related expenses. At least one major for-profit school spends more on marketing than education.
• Ex-professors complain of being pressured to inflate failing students' grades so they will remain eligible for financial aid.
``When you've got an online school and almost everybody's getting straight A's, is that a real education?'' asked John Andrews, an attorney representing former Kaplan College employees.
• A federal Government Accountability Office investigation made public last month sent undercover ``secret shoppers'' into 15 of the largest for-profit colleges -- and found questionable or misleading practices at all 15 of them. Recruiters at four schools, including the Miami campus of Medvance Institute, went so far as to induce students to commit financial aid fraud so they would have the money necessary to enroll.
At Kaplan College's Pembroke Pines campus, the GAO report found recruiters pressured students to enroll using car-salesman-like intimidation, while exaggerating how much graduates typically make in their new jobs. GAO investigators posed as prospective students in the inquiry.
On the subject of student loans, one Kaplan recruiter told a GAO investigator that heavy debt was no big deal.
``I owe $85,000 to the University of Florida. Will I pay it back? Probably not,'' the recruiter said, while being recorded by a hidden camera.
TAXPAYERS ON HOOK
In reality, student loan debt is nearly impossible to hide from. Students who default on such loans can have their wages garnished, and their tax return refunds held hostage. Even bankruptcy won't usually get rid of these loans.
In the case of federally guaranteed student loans -- which comprise the vast majority of loan money that flows to colleges -- taxpayers are ultimately on the hook to pay back defaults that are uncollectable.
Fort Lauderdale-based Kaplan, a subsidiary of The Washington Post Co., has for the moment suspended enrollment at its 9-month-old Pembroke Pines campus, as well as at a Riverside, Calif. campus also cited in the GAO probe.
``The actions described in the GAO report. . . are contrary to our standards and values in every way,'' the company said in a written statement. ``We will take all necessary actions -- including termination -- with respect to any employee found to be in violation of our clearly outlined standards and the code of conduct that is emphasized in our repeated training and our day-to-day operations.''
Former Kaplan student Wendy Young, of Tamarac, says Kaplan recruiters misled her when they promised she would not have to pay any out-of-pocket costs to attend -- grants and loans were supposed to cover it all.
After going to Kaplan for a year and a half, Young says she got a surprising phone call -- the school was demanding a $3,000 payment.
``They said I had a delinquent balance,'' Young said. ``They never explained to me where the balance came from.''
Young, who is still disputing the $3,000 bill, complained to the Better Business Bureau about Kaplan -- as have more than 530 other people in the past three years.
NEW RULES WEIGHED
Meanwhile, the Department of Education, which under the Bush administration loosened the rules governing for-profits, is considering new regulations that would bar federal loans and grants from flowing to schools where the vast majority of graduates can't make enough money to pay back their loans.
Harris Miller, head of the Career College Association, which lobbies on behalf of for-profit schools in Washington, acknowledges there are some bad apples in the industry. But Miller, who is resistant to new regulations, counters that traditional higher education isn't perfect either, and that many students turn to for-profits after finding the ``sink or swim'' environment of public institutions doesn't work for them.
``Our schools build into their basic educational model the kind of support services that community colleges can rarely afford,'' Miller said. ``If you miss a class in one of our schools, someone calls you.''
The loan defaults, he adds, are primarily caused by students who fail to complete their degree or certificate programs.
For-profit schools enroll students of all ages and income brackets, but the heart of their business is low-to-moderate income students, many of whom are minorities and/or the first in their family to ever attend college. These students are usually a surefire bet for thousands of dollars in federal financial aid.
``We are stuffing the pockets of poor people with vouchers ... and then we're letting a bunch of marketeers have a run at them,'' said Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers.
In many cases, poor students qualify for enough federal college grants to attend a community college for free, yet instead they enroll, en masse, at for-profit schools while incuring tens of thousands of dollars in debt.
Budget cutbacks at community colleges -- which make it harder for students to get into the classes they want -- are part of the reason. But the appeal of for-profits also includes their wide array of online degree offerings, and bricks-and-mortar classes centered on the schedule of working adults.
At the University of Phoenix -- the nation's largest school, with a total enrollment of more than 476,000 students -- classes are often compressed into five- or six-week mini-semesters. Students achieve the same amount of credits in a given year, but take only one class at a time -- a schedule driven by the notion that it's easier for busy, nontraditional students to absorb one fast-paced class than to juggle four classes in a normal-length college semester. And South Floridians have five campuses to choose from.
PERSONALIZED CARE
For-profits are also adept at personalized customer service, especially at the outset. A community college may tell you what form you need to fill out to receive federal financial aid, but at for-profits, recruiters will fill that form out for you.
Overzealous for-profit recruiters have been criticized in other parts of the country for mining homeless shelters for prospective students. That practice doesn't appear to be common in South Florida, though recruiters here have been faulted for how they conduct visits to local high schools.
At Dr. Michael Krop Senior High School in Miami, a guidance counselor says he's tried to rein in those visits -- but with little success.
``They like to go into a classroom, and then they'll give a presentation about careers or something of that nature,'' said Robert Roddy, Krop's college assistance program advisor. ``I call that basically a captive audience. . .the students don't really have much of a choice, they basically have to listen.''
Roddy says he has told recruiters that he prefers they set up shop in a more-neutral location on campus, such as Krop's auditorium or cafeteria, where students can obtain information if they wish. But some schools, including Brown Mackie College, which leases space from the Miami Herald Media Company, are still working their way into the classroom, Roddy complained.
``A lot of times they're doing it behind my back, through the English departments,'' Roddy said. ``This is a very common practice.''
Brown Mackie spokesman Steve Dobbins said the college was simply following an arrangement it has had with a particular teacher at Krop for about three years, and that a Brown Mackie representative would reach out to Roddy to discuss the proper protocol.
``We want to maintain a positive relationship with our communities, in particular our high schools,'' Dobbins said.
CLOSE TO HOME
Eric Perez learned about Strayer University for the first time after the for-profit school opened a new campus near his home in Davie. Perez, who currently works 80 hours a week at two low-paying security guard jobs, yearns to be a police officer, so he sat down with a Strayer financial adviser.
``A week later, I was already enrolled,'' said Perez, 28. ``Working two jobs, it doesn't have an end -- I'm sick and tired. . . I want to have a better life.''
Perez is pursuing both a bachelor's and master's degree in criminal justice. He anticipates owing at least $80,000 in student loans once he's done.
``I was worried at first, but then they told me that I pay everything after I graduate,'' Perez said.
But Constance Brown has yet to make any of the required $352 monthly payments on $30,000 in loans she received to attend Sanford-Brown Institute. She graduated two years ago with an associate's degree in diagnostic medical sonography. What she doesn't have is a job in her field, even though she has applied for a variety of openings in seven different states.
Sanford-Brown's sonography program, both in Jacksonville and Fort Lauderdale, is not accredited. No accreditation means graduates can't sit for the necessary exam to become a registered technician.
``I have a degree that I can't even use,'' Brown said.
Andrea Meyer, a spokeswoman for Career Education Corporation -- Sanford-Brown's parent company -- insisted that program accreditation wasn't essential for graduates to get a job.
Brown, 28, is now back in school, at a local community college, taking many of the same courses over again. Many for-profit college students encounter trouble trying to transfer credits -- in Brown's case, not a single class was transferable.
Though the federal government in recent years boosted the maximum Pell Grant award for low-income students, there are limits to Uncle Sam's generosity. Students who graduate from degree programs that are unaccredited or not recognized by employers may find that, upon enrolling in a new school, they've exhausted their grant eligibility.
Victoria Hernandez, director of governmental affairs at Miami-Dade College, said community colleges are where many for-profit students end up.
``They come with debt,'' Hernandez said. ``They don't have access to Pell Grants anymore, and they're just in tears.''
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/09/04/v-fullstory/1809205/for-profit-schools-grow-as-do.html#ixzz14FsFiHxe
No comments:
Post a Comment