Dick Durbin: For-Profit Colleges "Own Every Lobbyist" in DC

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/story/156112/dick_durbin%3A_for-profit_colleges_%22own_every_lobbyist%22_in_dc/

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On Wednesday, 20 state attorneys general announced a court settlement with QuinStreet Inc., a marketing company working for for-profit colleges, that will shut down the deceptive website GIBill.com and turn that web address over to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

GIBill.com, until recently, looked a lot like a government website. But people who went there seeking advice on higher education options were always steered to a for-profit college that paid for the privilege. Deceptive marketing like this, along with coercive recruiting tactics, push thousands of our troops and veterans to shoddy for-profit colleges that have high prices, low-quality educations, high dropout rates, and overwhelming loan debts for students. Many struggling Americans have had their lives ruined by for-profit colleges, but troops and veterans are a particular target for predatory schools because of loopholes in federal law.

Since these bad practices have now been widely exposed, why are even the worst actors in the for-profit college industry still sharing in the $32 billion in federal financial aid that goes to this sector every year? One word: Lobbying.

“It’s reached a point now when you get little or nothing done when you take on the for-profit schools in Congress,” Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) said at a Washington press conference [on Friday] announcing the settlement. ”Why? They own every lobbyist in town.”

Durbin added, “What the for-profit schools are doing to students and their families across America is shameful. What they’re doing to veterans is disgraceful.”

[salin]

1. I work in a high poverty community where the for profits have sprung up

like vultures. I know of one that counsels students that they have to enroll within the next 24-48 hours or "lose out" - and who are told that the student loans are sent to the "school", and then the money left over beyond tuition (and they always promise this is so) - will be doled out from the school to the student based upon the student bringing in specific expense bills (rent, electric bill). The practices of these "admission counselors" are financially cannibalistic. At institutions that have a very small rate of graduation let alone placement in jobs.

[davidpdx]

2. I think they are talking mostly about 2 year schools aren't they?

The technical type colleges that advertise on television.

[HiPointDem]

3. no. city university, university of phoenix, etc. u of phoenix i believe has the highest loan

default rates of any school.