I was reading this article and it prompted me to look at Everest a bit closer. I hadn't realized so much of Everest will live on now under the control of Zenith (a non-profit). I think this raises a few interesting questions about what it means for a school to be "for-profit." It also seems a bit odd to me that Everest, where the problems originated, will survive but Heald was forced to close.
That is unfortunate. My understanding is that ideologically motivated policymakers in California blocked a sale that would have spared Heald from the headsman's axe.
I'm curious about the future of Everest as well. The name is forever tainted by the Corinthian collapse. Their search engine results are seriously screwed because of the whole debacle. But now Everest is owned by a non-profit. Some campuses will be teaching out but a few will live on. So Everest is no longer legally a "for-profit" entity. It is owned by a non-profit (which appears to be controlled by the Corinthian people). Did it magically become better? Or are we willing to, perhaps, admit that non-profit status doesn't make a school "good" and being for-profit doesn't make a school "bad?"
Are we not going to give the school any time to make changes? The problem is not the profit status; the problem is the mindset. APUS has a different mindset from most large, for-profit schools. On the other hand, you have a non-profit school like Southern New Hampshire University which started as a for-profit school and says it has modeled itself after for-profit schools. From the reviews I've seen from people, they do operate much like the large for-profits with bad reputations.
That's my point. There are people who pointed to Corinthian with an indignant smirk and said "See! For-profits are bad!" Well, that made for a great series of headlines for a few weeks. Now, no one cares that the schools will live on under a non-profit foundation. To those people I must ask, is Everest now "better" than Grand Canyon? Because those apologists live in a world where SNHU must have the moral high ground because it is "non-profit" despite the fact that it borrows heavily from the UofP playbook. So now Everest students who complained about their student loans might also get alumni donation solicitations.
