A Few Bad Apples Don't Rot the Entire Orchard

For decades, opponents of the for-profit education sector have used the same arguments to try and de-legitimize the career focused schools that are operated on the basis of profit. True, there have been some horror cases of abuse by opportunistic operators and such cases should be prosecuted as crimes. But overall, the vast majority of schools operating for a profit are doing good for their students and the labor market. As such, the entire sector is not deserving of the stigma that opponents of it have attached. I often espouse that a few bad apples don't mean that the entire orchard is rotten. Others before me have describe this situation similarly:

In a 1973 speech, Jack Jones suggested that the public image of proprietary institutions is based largely on the lowest common denominator, implying that the entire sector is identified according to the misdeeds of a few bad apples that are part of a much larger and healthy orchard. In a 1974 paper, David A. Trivett likened this personification to “basing the image of all colleges and universities on knowledge about Harvard or Oxford.

Similarly, there are bad apples in the public and non-profit sector. Look at the case of Southeastern University in DC, which Kevin Carey excellently describes in the Washington Monthly. But you don't see Burd or other critics viscously attacking the public sector because of a few cases of abuse and neglect. This suggests to me that critics of the sector are biased on ideological grounds - they oppose capitalism and profits. I tend to defend the career college sector because I see that they are doing things a little differently than traditional colleges, often more innovative and in tune with creating value for their students. I could care less whether such schools operated for a profit or not - the outcomes are what matters. Are graduates completing their degrees? Are they finding good jobs in a field related to their studies? Are they improving their socio-economic status? Policy folks need to focus on identifying which things are working, and which aren't, as opposed to drawing lines based on ideology.