Student Protests

Check out my latest article for Minding the Campus, where I applaud students for their mass protests yesterday, but argue that they are pointing fingers in the wrong direction. It isn't state governments that they should be accusing for tuition inflation. Read the essay to find out which direction they should be directing blame.

Must Reads: 03/05/10

Bloomberg article on for-profit acquisitions of non-profit institutions and their regional accreditation status.

Buying accreditation lets the new owners benefit immediately from federal student aid, which provides more than 80 percent of revenue for some for-profit colleges, instead of having to wait at least two years. Traditional colleges are also more inclined to offer transfer credits for courses taken at regionally approved institutions, making it easier to attract students nationwide.

More vigilance by the Education Department and accrediting groups is likely to slow enrollment growth and the share prices of higher education companies that rely on acquisitions, said Clifford. While publicly held postsecondary education companies rose 29.9 percent in the 12 months ended March 3, they lagged behind the S&P 500, which increased 60.7 percent over the same period, said Jeffrey Silber, an analyst for BMO Capital Markets in New York. The shortfall reflected investors’ fears of tighter federal regulation of for-profit colleges, Silber said.

Regional accreditation is worth $10 million to a for-profit acquirer, Clifford said in a telephone interview. That’s how much it would cost to start a regionally accredited college, a process that can take 10 years and has only a 50-50 chance of success, he said. On top of the $10 million, buyers typically pay $23,000 to $50,000 per enrolled student, making the purchase of Daniel Webster a bargain, Clifford said.

“As a for-profit venture, we have the resources to invest in the student experience and the very best faculty, and we want to provide a high quality business education.”(Jack Welch)

Michael Platt at Career College Central

As with the automotive industry, this administration keeps throwing money we don’t have at failing businesses like the community college system, and trying to fix the problems by charging the taxpayers more money, in this case through increased tuition. And let’s be fair here ... our government owns and run these businesses. There is no other reasonable way to look at it.

Must Reads: 03/04/10

George Leef's post-debate comments:

If we want to get serious about improving our economy’s productivity, there are many, many things that would help. Governments massively divert resources away from productive, competitively determined uses and into unproductive, politically determined uses; they interfere with efficiency with innumerable laws and regulations; they drive away investors and entrepreneurs with high taxes.

The list of changes that would make the American economy stronger is extremely long, but putting more people through college is not among them.

Higher Ed experts urge Duncan to tackle transfer policies.

If we expect to improve student success, it is time to examine the process by which sending and receiving institutions manage the transfer function to ensure an easier and less costly progression by students.

Kevin Carey on the non-transparency of accreditation.

New Study Criticizes Voluntary Accountability in Higher Education

Andrew Kelly (AEI) and Chad Adelman (Education Sector) authored a study that is highly critical of the self accountability systems (U-CAN, VSA), and was released this week. The report suggests 2 major policy implications:

1)Transparency About Costs and Outcomes Must Be Mandatory, Not Voluntary

2)Collect Data That Clarify Institutional Distinctions, Not Blur Them

The Politics of Failure

The College Guide blog posted a piece discussing the politics of failure - essentially big talk from the Department of Education about the need for change, with little follow through. I posted the following comment on the blog:

Easy to say, difficult to do. The higher education community is vehemently opposed to change and uses its strong lobby and political allies to wage a war whenever it feels threatened. Its stance is understandable, as it has a pretty sweet going for it: tons of money flowing in from the taxpayers with very little interference. As Mrs. Spellings said, the college's attitude is "give us the money and leave us alone".

Video from Education and the Economy Debate

Above is web video of the national debate on education and the economy held last Friday. If you want to catch the debate on TV, please check the PBS broadcast schedule here.

National Debate on Education and the Economy

I posted a review of Friday's debate at the National Press Club in Washington DC on the CCAP blog. Check it out.