Feelings on For-Profit

Discussion in 'Online & DL Teaching' started by kzobb, Oct 1, 2010.

Loading...
  1. kzobb

    kzobb New Member

    WASHINGTON -- Working in career services at the Pittsburgh Art Institute's online division, Kathleen Bittel said she saw a co-worker give a false salary for one graduate and alter an e-mail of another.

    In team meetings, she said, supervisors would help brainstorm ideas to show graduates had jobs in their field -- for example, someone who sold video games at Toys-R-Us would be using the training from a video game design degree, or someone who drew the specials board at Starbucks be using graphic design knowledge.

    Testifying before the U.S. Senate on Thursday, Ms. Bittel, who lives in Westmoreland County, said these examples were the result of an incentive-based quota system for recruiting students and placing graduates in jobs that created a pressurized atmosphere in which abuse and fraud were rampant.

    "I stand to lose everything by coming here to see you today," she said. "Yet I am willing to risk all that I have to stop the unethical funneling of tax dollars through low-income individuals to further fill the coffers of mega-rich corporations."

    The hearing was part of a wide-ranging inquiry by Sen. Tom Harkin's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee into for-profit colleges, which have exploded in popularity and profit in recent years as online education has proliferated. They cater more to low-income students than public and nonprofit private schools and often offer more flexibility for working students.

    Mr. Harkin, an Iowa Democrat, called Ms. Bittel "a profile in courage" for coming forward and risking her job. Ms. Bittel is on a self-imposed leave of absence from the Art Institute. She said she brought her concerns to her superiors at the Downtown-based Education Management Corp. last month, but after they did not act on them, she fired off a fax to several senators whom she knew had been looking into for-profit colleges.

    EDMC chief executive officer Todd S. Nelson, in letters to Mr. Harkin and Sen. Mike Enzi of Wyoming, the committee's top Republican, disputed Ms. Bittel's claims. Mr. Nelson wrote that the company conducted an internal review after Ms. Bittel first filed her complaints, and once her concerns became public, authorized an investigation by an outside counsel. Both found no evidence of wrongdoing, he wrote.

    He wrote that Ms. Bittel did not cooperate with the investigation, and Ms. Bittel testified that she did not name names because she felt that was improper but gave investigators enough information to find the people breaking the rules.

    Aside from Ms. Bittel's testimony, a pair of experts -- the president of the Institute for College Access and Success and the president for the Council for Opportunity in Education -- and a student at a Kaplan University in Iowa recited the pitfalls of for-profit education. Through its students, for-profit schools received $24 billion in federal loans and grants last year.

    "Considered together, the for-profit college industry's rapid growth, aggressive recruiting practices, heavy reliance on federal funds, disturbing student debt patterns and disproportionate enrollment of under-represented students clearly point to high and rising stakes for both students and taxpayers," testified Lauren Asher, the president of the Institute for College Access and Success.

    Mr. Harkin compiled a report from data from 16 for-profit schools showing high dropout rates and huge debt loads by graduates and non-graduates alike. In 2007, the report states, more than 95 percent of students at two-year for-profit schools and 93 percent at four-year for-profit schools took out student loans, while 16.6 percent of community college students and 44.3 percent of students at public four-year institutions borrowed.

    Because students at for-profit schools typically have lower incomes to qualify for federal loans and aid, the schools received as high as 93.1 percent of their income from the federal government, the report states.

    Mr. Enzi and other committee Republicans called into question the motives behind the investigation and targeting of for-profit institutions, when many public and nonprofit schools have abysmal graduation rates as well.

    The industry has vociferously opposed a pending "gainful employment" regulation by the Education Department that would block federal funds for for-profit schools whose graduates are face high proportions of debt relative to their salaries.

    In response, it has launched a media blitz playing up for-profit schools' importance to low-income students.

    "This is about race and this is about income, and liberal Democrats, of all people, should be sensitive to that," said Lanny Davis, a lobbyist for the industry and former White House counsel to President Bill Clinton.

    Democrats contended that the low-income students are exactly who they want to help save from predatory practices by for-profit colleges that result in high debt and few job prospects.

    Ms. Bittel testified that in a previous position in the admissions department at Argosy University -- also owned by EDMC -- her salary depended heavily on how many students she enrolled. And admissions officers were expected to do so aggressively, with three calls a day to new "leads." There was little concern about whether the students could afford the courses or handle the work, she said. On the career side, she said, there was an unreasonably high -- particularly for a recession -- quota of 85.9 percent job placement in their fields of study. When she complained about a co-worker changing the salary for one student to help hit the quota, she said, the employee never was disciplined and later got an award.

    Despite speaking out against her employer, Ms. Bittel said there are many positives to for-profit education -- and EDMC, in particular, in how they help non-traditional students like stay-at-home mothers. But the high prices and sketchy selling practices have to stop.

    "I don't want to see them eliminated," she said. "I just don't think they are worth $100,000."

    Daniel Malloy: [email protected] or 1-202-445-9980.


    Read more: Hearings question practices of for-profit colleges
     

Share This Page