Just reviewed the CBO deficit update for July '18 and learned that DeVos and Co. will save the USA $9-billion, off the backs of these young, that is!
3
What could possibly go wrong when the Secretary of Education is surrounded by: The fine people behind Amway, America's preeminent pyramid scheme; The folks who brought us Blackwater, a rapacious, violent, for-profit enterprise that exemplifies both meanings of "mercenary"; and the quackery of Neurocore, an absolutely reprehensible scam that is just snake oil with a technological patina.
Only the best people in this administration.
8
Exactly how does this improve America's education system Ms DeVos. Free enterprise isn't a license to steal as you seem to believe. Democrat should make it clear these decision will be reversed in 2020 when America is not under a conservative
religious theocracy.
3
All this administration does is to end something Obama started. Thats all they got. Could they be productive and create something for once?? Of course not
5
Trump kept his promise of draining the swamp. Unfortunately, the drainees are all working for him. Case in point: Betsy DeVos. I don't understand why the people in this administration do what they do. I do, actually. Greed, corruption, nastiness and the biggest and best of all...ignorance.
4
Conratulations! The U.S. public is getting an education - unwarranted and unwanted, maybe, but valuable nonetheless. How else are we, the impoverished unwashed ignorants to learn what a truly rich elite may be willing to do to take out country back to third-world status in order to protect her families fortune? Corruption? Yes, assuredly. Collusion? Maybe, but Ms. DeVos seems perfectly capable of wrecking our public education on her own.
6
"The other side should declare victory and go home." Steve Gunderson, president of Career Education Colleges and Universities, the for-profit industry's trade association.
Unfortunately "the other side" lost an election and went home. Now there is only one side represented: industry. Whether it's EPA, Interior or Education, the voice of the citizen is gone and both industry and government are one. A newer definition of a "populist" president.
4
The Republicans tout the free market and invoke caveat emptor but these “colleges” exist only because of government tax subsidies, I.e. federal student loans. Take the government out of it and the schools close their doors. What does this tell you about Republican free market principles?
3
From: Monthly Budget Review for June 2018--July 9,2018.
CBO
In contrast, outlays for the Department of Education (included in “Other” below) fell by
$44 billion (or 48 percent) because the department made a downward revision of $9 billion to the
estimated net subsidy costs of loans and loan guarantees issued in prior years—a change very
different from last year’s $39 billion upward revision. If the effects of those revisions were
excluded, outlays for the department for the first nine months of the fiscal year would have risen by
$4 billion (or 9 percent).
As someone responsible for hiring early childhood education employees for the last 10 years, I can't emphasize enough how worthless these degrees are. Early on, our industry made the mistake of giving some preference to these degree-holders, only to find out how meaningless the preparation was that students were receiving. In the meantime, financially strapped, aspiring teachers have been getting crushed by the debt taken on to get these phony diplomas... it has been heartbreaking to watch. The entire for-profit education industry should be shut down, as far as I'm concerned...
6
We have now created an imperial secretary of education to go along with the imperial presidency. This looks like something that would happen in Russia and China, not the U.S.
2
People forget that a significant part of DEVos's personal billion dollar fortune comes from these For Profit Schools.
People should also note that For Profit Schools have to very significant targets, Minorities and Veterans.
Veterans because the income generated from their GI Bill benefits are not part of the main Income Ratio standards the schools must maintain. 20% of their income has to come from sources other than Student Loans and Federal Grants, which the GI bill payments cover nicely for them.
Minorities are a target because most of these For Profit schools entrance requirements ignore poor performance in High School and life. They provide extensive latitude in what they consider "life experience" and do everything they can to get the student to sign a contract that has no real way to be escaped since student loans cannot be discharged in bankruptcy.
11
I'm sure that the students formed a grassroots movement, went door-to-door, signed petitions and BEGGED to have those regulations scrapped because everyone loves indentured servitude.
11
The bankers make money on for profit colleges, too. Students at for profit colleges take out government guaranteed student loans on which they default, and the bankers get paid in full by the government.
One of the side effects of the student loan system is that it has enabled colleges to vastly increase their tuition rates. Another more pernicious side effect is that it creates a heavily indebted indentured servant class. The former students, whether of non-profit or for profit schools, must scrape by to try to repay the debt. The extent of the debt makes changing careers or even jobs highly risky. Employers have more control over these heavily indebted employees and can, e.g., demand they perform unpaid overtime work and hold down their compensation. They cannot afford to quit.
And the students who do default cannot even rid themselves of the debt via bankruptcy.
Let's take a look at free college tuition versus permitting student debt to be relieved through bankruptcy versus maintaining the status quo. Free college tuition would likely have less cost than loan defaults and would enable students to obtain their education, acquire higher paying jobs, and to increase the economy with their consumer consumption.
The rich will always get richer, but the poor do not need to always get poorer. A high tide lifts all boats.
The simple test for the Trump administration's policies is to look at the money flow and to see who benefits. It is alays the rich.
11
No surprise here……look what the President got away with when he created the now defunct Trump University. Students and parents get stuck with enormous student loans and there is no accountability within the educational systems. This act is beyond devious.
Vote midterm elections and eradicate the swamps that Trump promised and failed to eliminate. Trump, his cronies and the GOP need to be sent a decisive and clear message that enough is enough
9
Another big scam is the government backing of student loans to US medical students enrolled in foreign medical schools - such as those in the Caribbean. Those schools are all for-profit. They are not accredited by the LCME, have huge classes, and a large percentage if the students default on their loans (and never gets MDs). Also, the schools swamp our hospitals with medical students during years 3 and 4 causing an increased competition for the training spots resulting in an increase in cost for US medical and DO schools. It is a scam perpetuated by those in congress who take money from these for-profit schools. Sen. Durbin has tried to get a bill to stop this - it goes nowhere.
5
Some Republicans believe that the private sector can better address all our needs as a society. It's like a religion. Hence, they want to privatize everything - including sectors that have long been not for profit or part of the government. It is no coincidence that Betsy Devos' brother is Erik Prince, the founder of the private military operation Blackwater.
The private for-profit sector does provide most of the goods and services we need, including essentials such as food and housing. But there are some sectors where non-profit organizations or government agencies are more appropriate. Prisons come to mind as one example.
There is no basis for claiming the profit motive better addresses our individual and societal needs to provide education. Community colleges and technical schools provide a better education at a lower cost than for-profit colleges.
If you think Devos' efforts to privatize education are bad, just wait until you see the Trump infrastructure plan (if it ever materializes).
Mr. Trump's infrastructure plan is to privatize everything. He wants to leverage $200 billion of public money to generate $1 trillion in infrastructure investment. Sounds great, right? Until you realize that it involves selling off our highways, airports, shipping ports, and everything else to private companies?
There is already a group of Saudi investors interested in buying American highways. Do you want to pay your water bill to Goldman Sachs?
VOTE!
7
Betsy DeVos needs to talk with public educators and students who have been taken advantage of. She only seems to know what the supply side of the equation is. She was born wealthy and therefore cannot understand the vulnerability of young and even middle aged people striving to get ahead. Predatory schools do understand. They exploit this vulnerability combined with the seemingly free money from student loans.
Education should be a right. We need more well educated citizens.
Ms. DeVos probably can't understand this because she never experienced public education. She can't understand the richness that comes from interactions with a diverse student body.
That's a shame.
5
Eliminate federal loan guarantees for education by for-profit universities. It is just a program that those universities use too make a profit and to shift the risk of doing business onto us the tax payer.
5
The second phase of this announcement will no doubt be a $25 million federal grant to Trump U to cover its cost for the infamous settlement. And she also promised the President that Trump U could be restarted and the Dept of Education will rate it as the #1 university in the country
7
Does this mean that Trump University has a chance at a comeback?
6
Talk about recruiting the fox for the henhouse. This President is one of the most egregious violators of educational responsibility (has little himself, is a predator via his "Universities") and sets this equally undereducated (for the job) crony to fleece students even further. I have family members who have taught valiantly in these for profit colleges in Chicago. In the past several years, Goldman-Sachs bought one, immediately ran it into the ground with low-employment curricula ("Hang out with rock stars! Be a recording engineer!"), fired most of the qualified teachers, etc. Some students who literally were living in shelters and put all they had into breaking the cycle of poverty and low education trusted these schools. Enter DeVos, thick as a brick (re-watch her confirmation hearings), entirely lacking empathy like the President. Nauseating. NOW Drain the Real Swamp. Vote!!
7
Ms DeVos' actions are consistent with republican policies to enable unscrupulous businesses to fleece ignorant consumers. Both she and they are wrong.
That said, there is no good reason why any and all institutions of higher learning are not held to reasonable standards to disclose debt, earnings information similar to what was imposed on the for - profit sector. It is disingenuous at best to argue that non-profit institutions are substantially less culpable than for-profit ones.
Lost in all of the posturing by the politicians for one side or the other is the notion that transparency and accountability matters if we are to trust on institutions.
1
Well, we're right back to the scams and abuses of the for-profit education racket ... with the taxpayers taking it right between the eyes, as usual. It's nothing short of criminal.
8
In terms of the ability of alumni to find good & gainful employment, why should "for profit" colleges should be held to a different standard from "nonprofit" colleges?
Getting a decent job in one's field of study after graduation is not guaranteed by any college, private or public, despite the astronomical cost of attendance.
The cost of "nonprofit" college education is the real scandal of our times.
1
Someone has to get rich ripping off students and the tax payers.
6
These for profit schools are there to provide easy degrees for public sector union employees to get advancement. Who else would pay for a degree from these shell colleges?
1
It seems like our present administration is being run like a fiefdom, with the only interests in how to line their own pockets. Ms DeVos' business is charter schools.
9
Well, the Bible only specifies special care for "widows and orphans," so students and tax-payers are fair game. Like her brother, Betsy just follows the "good book;" the Bible says nothing specifically about destabilizing sovereign nations and terrorizing their populations for power and profit. What an exemplary christian family they are.
10
And those rules were working so well.
The Obama rules, like so many government rules, were designed to give the impression they were doing something, forced colleges to fill out all forms of government reports, which the bureaucrats then promptly did nothing with.
1
The last paragraph says it all. It's the same with the mass incarceration festival at the border, being held in for profit prisons, money, money,
money. DeVos, if I remember correctly, was invested in for profit "colleges". Personal financial gain seems to be the motivating factor with everyone involved with the Trump administration.
6
I abhor the mess the country is in now as much as anyone else, however we are almost as much to blame as the crazies in power by giving them the opportunity to grab us by the throats.
When we allow unskilled workers to earn outrageous salaries for doing almost nothing just because the united States had no competition in manufacturing after World War 2 we were beginning to sew the seeds of todays problems. Those overpaid jobs are gone forever.
Then we allow sharpshooters with no scruples to loot our finances. Years ago our own family lost money to a dishonest broker working for one of the largest financial firms in the country. This mess did not happen all at once. These are only two of many examples.
If we continue to allow todays situation to exist we have no one to blame but ourselves. This reminds me of the saying that in order to see your enemy all you have to do is to look in the mirror.
The 50's and 60's are gone. Lets get smart.
1
US News and World Report and Money Magazine has published ratings for schools based on tuition costs, student aid, graduation rates, etc. for NON-PROFIT and PUBLIC universities for MANY years. I have NOT seen similar analyses for profit-driven institutions.
4
Am I missing something here? Doesn’t Ms. DeVos have business investments in industries tied to private schools? Doesn’t this represent a conflict of interest?
Another day, another attack on Obama-era regulations.
10
How is Erik Prince these days?
4
Neato. The Amway Queen in charge of federal education policy. GUNS: good for students and bad for bears. TAX PAYER FUNDED VOUCHERS: good for Christian schools and bible science, and bad for public education with standards. CORRUPTION/PRIVATIZATION: goes beyond the scammers like Trump University, consider debt collection agencies such as the Performant Financial Corp. which DeVos has ties to and had business with the U.S. Education Department. The list goes on and on and on and on
8
I was scammed into going to a for profit paralegal school in 1981. That was at the height of the recession. Everybody attending had a college degree beforehand. The school has since closed. I never got a paralegal job. These schools offer hope for those with few options. Then people have to start over with less when they don't live up to the hype. I went back to college then found a low skill factory job before finding my way.
I cheered that the last administration finally took long overdue action. Now I weep
7
The big disconnect in this whole situation is in sticking the taxpayers with the bill for student loans that don't get repaid. This provides for-profit institutions essentially risk-free access to a big pot of Other People's Money, which is always a huge motivation in many capitalist endeavors. BTW, I wonder how the data would look across the board, for all public and private not-for-profit schools? How many of their graduates find good jobs in their fields within a reasonable time after graduating? Let's look at the whole story.
3
As the Lead Veterans GE negotiator, I clearly wanted consensus. There is plenty of blame to go around for why we are where we are today. I prefer to focus on where we must go now. We now must work together to reach agreement on bipartisan legislation that addresses accountability comprehensively to protect all student Veterans at every program eligible for federal aid. We must move forward on new improvements like institutional risk sharing, programmatic repayment rates, accreditation reforms, and greater transparency. If we don’t rise to the challenge, all of us will have failed the students who need these reforms the most, including military families. Partisan attacks, finger pointing, and questioning the motives of various stakeholders will not move us forward. Now is the time to work with stakeholders to protect Student Veterans. Daniel Elkins- Legislative Director The Enlisted Association of the National Guard
I would be interested in data for all schools. That includes not-for profit public, not-for profit private and all for profits to be mandated to disclose identical data. And the data should include not only what the student's prospect is for getting a job in his/her field and for loan debt versus actual paycheck, but how many kids really graduate in 4 years, what the drop out rate is, and other relevant data. That's the only way students and parents can gauge what might be the best choice for higher education.
5
@Nancy F. Sudik There is a fundamental error that schools should prepare a student for a job. If that is the basis for your thinking on education then create Trade schools. If the basis for your thinking on education is to produce an educated person then traditional education institutions are the better choice. A degree from these institutions will allow the educatied person to find a job using the ability to think and solve problems. An employer should seek the person who can think as a valuable employee and should train them to do the job they are hired for. This was something I was told by a lead research scientist at a commerrcial chemistry corporation. This attitude has changed and coprportions want someone else (schools) to do the training they need. thus we think we need to make sure that higher education is a jobs training concern. Who cares if the person can think and thus be able to face the challenges in their work? We just need technicians to do the job. It is the highly paid executive that does the thinking.
Education, like health care, is a fundamental provision of civilized nations. A basic right. Many countries provide health care and public education without cost to their citizens.
Instead, the Trump Administration, with its own glaring conflicts of interest, makes it harder and more expensive.
When we ordained the constitution to promote the general welfare, what did we have in mind if not this?
21
@Occupy Government What is "the constitution"?
@RLW
S/he speaks of the US Constitution's preamble. What's little recognized by the right these days is how much the founding generation believed in public goods and the necessity of their provision (Jefferson's support for universal primary education and Madison's support for public higher education are a couple of germane examples).
What is lacking in this report is the actual data used by the Obama administration and DeVos to substantiate the claims of either failings or successes in educating students and in finding appropriate rewarding jobs for the colleges that are the target of both administrations. I don't believe either administration is 100% accurate in their reporting and I certainly have questions about what courses students took and how well they did. Also, did both students and the colleges do enough research to ascertain if jobs to match education were actually available? There is a great information gap. Its not hard to believe that a college would embellish the opportunities for gainful employment and its also not hard to believe that some students would not find jobs right away even if successful in college. Where is the data to support the claims? Also, having a degree does not assure employment in a down market or a market glutted with many people seeking few available positions. Where is the real picture of what jobs were available? We're those students properly prepared? Did they do well academically? Did their education truly prepare them? And what about the industries for which students prepared themselves? What jobs were truly offered and where were they located? There is not enough here to come to a supportable conclusion that students and/or colleges failed. Maybe the Obama administration was wrong and DeVos is right.
1
@Jay Where have you been Jay? Please google a few articles from 2006-2009 about schools loading students up with debt only to fail graduating them or if giving them a certificate it would have no value on the market. They prey on people with poor H.S. grades or a GED who decide later that education is their way out. Alas not all of them have the understanding to judge these junk programs and keep moving.
3
There is enough available evidence to conclude that EVERYTHING that DeVos does is purely for her for-profit friends. There is NO evidence that suggests she is somehow “right”.
@Jay
Looks like I stand corrected. There is plenty of research and good numbers to make a substantial case against DeVos. I Googled the topic and without question DeVos is looking out for her cronies and partners in defrauding students who are vulnerable to the pitch of so-called colleges that offer degrees that are totally useless. The safeguards that were in place should be restored and DeVos should step down from her position. She is as feckless as the institutions offering the worthless degrees. The schools should be targeted and the debt of all students defrauded should be forgiven.
1
Devos puts the "Trump University" model into operation. Teach nothing, rip off your students in a for-profit setting and give them no job skills! Appalling!
21
What do you expect from a ady who got her riches by similar abuse of the system by her family? Those are the FAMILY VALUES. Go on. March with Trump as his Trumpet!
15
The recurring visits of Betsy DeVos to the front page of The Times
remind us that it's important to women's advancement not only to
win marathons and Nobel Prizes, but to show that they can be
self-dealing mediocrities as well, just like the guys. The photo
accompanying this article underlines this: they can wear the gray
flannel suit, they can know the secret handshake.
14
The criminals and fraudsters are in control of the White House. Protecting generally low income people seeking a future is prime meat for these unethical businesses. Kick the criminal enterprise out of the White House and restore decency to our political discourse.
28
Given the history of Trump University, Ms. DeVos's action is appalling in its corruptness. This administration does not even try to hide its goals of lining its own pockets. Mr. Trump, how is DeVos's actions draining the swamp? She wants to put more federal money in the pockets of proven charlatans.
Congress should call a hearing. And the Congressional Black Caucus should become "woke", along with the NAACP and HBCUs. This is nothing more than an attempt to once again steer the poor and minorities toward awful "colleges" that do not deliver anything but debt and unemployment. All organizations should use their networks of churches, NGO's, and advertising to tell black Americans do not go to these for-profit colleges.
25
Ah, this might re-open the door for trumper university. There's money to be had there.
7
The foxes are in the hen house, aren't they?
3
Seriously - this woman never ceases to completely disgust me. I worked for one of the schools in which Goldman & Sachs had invested. Hundreds of the students were under-qualified and struggled daily in their studies because they were not able to keep up with the curriculum; and therefore, they were not able to graduate. Either that, they barely graduated because teachers were directed to coddle them. When the did "graduate" there was absolutely no possibility that these kids would ever be gainfully employed.
Final outcome? They were saddled with 60-80K in debt, and working—again—stocking shelves at Walmart.
Gawd bless American Ms De Vos.
And the cancer that is the Trump administration continues its rampage against the soul of the United States of America.
20
“Liberates”??!! For-profit anything has been enslaved or imprisoned? Despite Citizens United, equating corporate entities with actual people is frankly delusional or sociopathic.
9
DeVos was placed in her position to destroy the Department of Education--and that is exactly what she is doing. She's been told exactly what to do and it's being done. And we American sheep just sit by and watch while these cabinet heads destroy this country's future.
18
Amazing what the combination of incompetence and venality can accomplish.
22
Interesting that the stated rationale is to rid the education department of those pesky "words" which I'm quite certain Ms. DeVoss has never read.
4
The department also wrote that the Obama regulations “reinforce an inaccurate and outdated belief that career and vocational programs are less valuable to students and less valued by society, and that these programs should be held to a higher degree of accountability than traditional two- and four-year degree programs that may have less market value.”
___
Blue collar trade schools are a necessity. One doesn't need a two-year degree to become an assembly line worker in an auto-manufacturing plant; a welder; a truck driver; any number of fields.
Just the same at a public university taking out student loans for a degree in Communications, Nutrition, Religious Studies or Gender Studies?
Allowing students to take out loans to pay to enhance their potential earning capacity to fund the government is a necessity. With it comes risks yet there also need to be restraints imposed. No one is or should be guaranteed a job as the individual MUST make an effort and take responsibility for their future.
If I BUY a car, the bank EXPECTS me to pay for it otherwise it will be repossessed. With education, that cannot be done; continuing to take out loan after loan to pay for one's education and then expect the government to pay for it because you cannot find a job to pay your bills is NOT their fault, Your poor choices is selecting a major and/or a tight job market, place one lives or any number of factors doesn't excuse YOU the student from paying the tab.
1
Globe University offered programs that had zero accreditation. That is the type of fraud these regulations were aimed at, not poor choice in major. For profit colleges are often predatory and mislead students.
2
If ME the student, can’t use WAGES to pay back the loan, who WILL?!
1
@Corbin
FIND a job that CAN utilize your skill sets, discuss benefit packages with your employer (college graduates with hired based on degree or profession), if the company offers tuition reimbursement quantify that in terms of payment towards student loans/semester.
She especially likes the religious schools and certainly don't want them held to any standards developed by mere mortals.
9
It appears that snake oil sales people have more scruples than this administration. Demanding no proof of value is the norm…and a large portion of the country is perfectly fine with deceptive policies.
Still, DeVos’ family fortune does depend on people lacking math skills.
14
..., seems that there’s smooth sailing for a rerun of Trump University - Make America Gullible Again ...
13
With DeVos' cancellation of these rules, it seems that even Trump University would never have had to close down - much less pay the people it fleeced. This is supposed to be "transparency?" What a joke - LOL!
19
Another industry shill, this one in the education business, serving the interests of investors and protecting their profits, in the most corrupt administration the country has ever seen. Nobody in this administration actually serves the people, only their self-interests.
13
The damage DeVos is doing to education in the U.S. is incalculable, such an appropriate Trump ally. He has said he loves the uneducated.
14
Why is she not being attacked every day for conflicts of interest? Why are the MSM and politicos giving her a pass as she does as much damage as anyone else in this cruel and corrupt administration?
11
the holes in our system is so apparent ... will we ever be able to close them and protect the citizens.... so every 4 years we can sit in terror that what was given to help us stay well be educated age with dignity will be torn away?... this is reprehensible
8
Every parent and student has to do their own due diligence on the school they are going to get their degrees and what marketability that degree would bring. I have been a professor at both not for profit state medical schools and for profit privately owned medical school and pharmacy school. In both cases students are central to getting the best education from what is offered.
For profit colleges and Universities are often second chances for students who could not get admission in not for profit institutions. But that does not mean that the education received is in any way substandard at for profit outfits. Also both types of schools have to undergo similar accreditation standards and the students have to take the same board exams that are often the ultimate criteria for residency acceptability or jobs as pharmacists,
De Vos has unfairly become the punching bag of those partisans who want to attack what she is trying to do. Washington DC should not be like Kremlin trying to control,regulate and police what is happening nationwide. Let that be done by the students first, the parents, the press which should watch colleges like a hawk and the national accreditation organizations for the respective fields.
We are running debt of 20T+ and if we do not cut unnecessary spending we will be continuing to incur higher debt. Obama-era excessive safeguards, spending and bail outs is the major reason most of our national debt being sky high and greater than all nations combined.
2
@Girish Kotwal
As part of cutting unnecessary spending do you include the tax breaks for the wealthy and the military budget?
By saying "Our new approach will aid students across all sectors of higher education and improve accountability.”, Ms. DeVos ignores at least three important differences between public and private education.
Public schools and universities are accountable to the representatives of taxpayers while private schools are not. Public school expenses are limited by and funded by budgets that taxpayers either approve directly or via their representatives. Public university tuition and fees are approved by representatives of taxpayers; private university tuition and fees are approved by private executives.
Taxpayers are providing billions of dollars to private schools and universities without any controls on how executives use those funds - except for the regulations that Ms. DeVos has been overturning. At the very least, taxpayers should have some assurance that their billions are educating students for gainful employment.
Perhaps Ms. DeVos doesn't know the history of private organizations heavily funded with public money, such as Medicaid Mills. That little experiment in privatization cost taxpayers billions of dollars before it was stopped - by regulation.
If Ms. DeVos wants a major role in education, she should buy Corinthian College - it's available for a song.
3
She may see herself as a free-market capitalist hero but she completely ignores the role of government - protecting the rights of all, including customers. Rules preventing fraud are a legitimate function of even the most limited government.
3
A wealthy person making rules to aid wealthy people. Are any of you ready for a revolution against the wealthy? The wealthy have always waged a class war against the people, even though their numbers are minuscule when compared to the rest of the population.
8
If there is a single act that illuminates the ethical/moral abyss in which the Trump administration operates, the elimination of performance standards applied to for-profit training programs is overwhelming in its intensity. Betsy DeVos has shown us all how a moral vacuum can enable a critical mass of nihlists to prey on the aspirations of struggling, low income adults who have already been victimized by failing schools and economic inequality.
The obvious failure of the entire for-profit technical education system, when required to satisfy the minimum standards established by employers in the various fields they claim to be serving, proves their contempt for their credulous students and the corrupt collaboration of at least some elements in the technical employment areas of the economy.
Almost all for-profit training businesses were proven to be economically unsustainable. When compelled to provide an honest count of their graduates who were actually qualified for entry level employment in their fields, it became obvious that the certificates and degrees they offered were worthless.
The technical/legal term is fraud. It permeates a large proportion of the Trump administration and it is expanding by the day!
4
@mike4vfr The trump administration is attempting to get rid of all consumer protections.
1
Thank goodness trump university will be able to get back to work ripping off people who aspire to an education. It was missing out on all of the presidential publicity due to these pernicious regulations. It’s again apparent that devos might be the very best of trump’s best people.
5
The lack of empathy for those who did not have the priveleged upbringing that the members of this administration were fortunate enough to have is just breathtaking. How does Betsy DeVos sleep at night after stripping away the protections so needed from these rapacious so-called schools? Simple. She does not feel the pain she is causing.
4
I'm happy to see the discriminatory regs go unless and until any educational institution accepting federal funds is compelled to publish audited employment results, length of time it takes to get a degree, which majors get jobs,
...
let me see if I have this.
One, there are people who are not going to attend the usual colleges due to financial circumstances or the need to keep their current employment.
Two, some portion of these will sign up with for-profit schools that offer supposedly offer course trajectories aimed at providing better jobs at the end of the line.
Three, many of those schools are a a trifle careless with their inflated promises about job prospects.
Four, prospective students tend to borrow the required tuition.
Five, many of those loans provide for government guarantees, i. e., these loans become contingent liabilities of the government and, therefore, of tax payers.
So, to sum up, the current administration, rippling with lusty free-market ideologues many of whom whom spent their entire educational lives in private schools, has no problem supporting the sale of a poor product under demonstrably false pretenses that is going to end up adding to the fiscal deficit, which will in turn end costing the socioeconomic groups which have borrowed the most even more as burgeoning deficit end in inflation, which, along with tariffs and more unaffordable housing in many cities, simply imposes growing financial burdens on lower economic quartiles, one portion of which has swallowed the bait and blames its woes on another portion.
While we about it, can we say that the Republicans have cornered the market on hypocrisy? You don't have to go to any school to answer that one.
6
If DeVos's new policies were in force at the time, does it mean that Trump University would not have had to settle that lawsuit?
1
Betsy DeVos has no college education in education, yet she leads this country’s educational programs. She claims to be a righteous Christian. She loves the privatization of schools, including those religious, preachy ones.
If that’s not corrupt, cruel, and evil - using taxpayer money to take advantage of children by demolishing public education and education safeguards, what is?
Of all Trump’s irresponsible and untoward picks, this one might be the worst. For crying out loud, doesn’t youth deserve a chance for their futures for the best - not this biased, greediness?
A Trump inside job - that will leave millions of minds and pocketbooks empty. No, Betsy DeVos is not making America great again. Far from it.
11
Vote !! Save our Education system.
Actively Support Candidates this fall to save our country from these right wing exploiters.
2
Everyone needs to watch two documentary shows that address for profit schools that came out a few years ago. Your eyes will be opened. First watch “College Inc.” which is about the way that these schools are set up as investment programs. The next is titled “Educating Seargent Pantzke.” This shows how students take out huge student loans even though most of them will never graduate or find that their degree is useless.
10
In Michigan DeVos favored Charter Schools which did not adequately prepare their students.
2
Trump administration policy guideline: If Obama was for it, the Trump administration is against it.
How can so many wealthy people in the Trump administration (for whom life has been very good) be filled with such anger, hatred and disdain for the average citizen?
2
Just wondering.....Why isn't this same standard imposes on the so called elite Ivy league and other for profit union schools?
1
Together with the dismantling of public education and the privatization of traditional college funding - i.e., predatory loans, we are finally creating the Free-Market paradise promised by Reaganism and furthered by the Bushes I & Lesser and the shadow Republican, Clinton: Feudal Aristocracy.
In other words, the Confederates/CSA has won the Cviil War.
1
T'would perhaps be on time to boycott for-profit institutions that doo not voluntarily prove to what extent their students get good jobs.
It is rather naïve by DeVos to do this, as there will still be a difference between the institutions that do prove this and those who choose not to. There is probably THE reason why they don't and hence I wouldn't even have considered to apply. And neither would DeVos.
Venality personified, given how much money she now stands to make. No reason to be surprised, of course.
What may be surprising, given this administration’s dislike of science, information and evidence, is her bald-faced claim of wanting to make “more information “ available to students. As if these schools will provide accurate and complete info to the government or anybody else.
And of course these prospective students will have no recourse now when the for-profit schools do not live up to their claims.
Perhaps the only protections left fall to parents and families— to warn their kids, in the strongest possible ways, never even to consider “DeVos” for-profit schools because neither those enterprises nor she can be trusted to do “as advertised.”
6
At last Trump University can reopen and get back in the important business of harvesting profit from gullible marks.
8
Seems like a very basic GOP tenet- NO ACCOUNTABILITY.
2
The deadly combination of the changing nature of our economy and the American belief that if you work hard to improve yourself, particularly through a college education, that you will secure a middle class job, is exploited by for-profit schools. Even one best touts its large number of Black women graduate students without mentioning they are hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, and that the doctorate they provide rarely makes a difference in their salaries.
The for-profit colleges have 3 distinguishing characterisitcs: 1) they target Black and Latino poor neighborhoods, using 1/3 of their corporate $$ to advertise and recruit 2) they train recruiters to find students at their lowest, and they enroll them by using maximum financial aid and loans and 3) they use 1/3 of their $$ to pay adminstrators. They education is of the lowest quality, but their ability to drain the federal financial aid system is of very high quality. These profiteers have been around since the correspondence school days of the 50’s, but their reach under the our increasingly oligarchic leaders is despicable.
4
Would a real estate company be liable if it sold land that was not arable to a farmer who expected to grow food?
In today's world, earning a living requires education. Everybody knows at least that much! And when people aren't free to hold those who sold them a bill of goods responsible, then isn't that being irresponsible? If, after paying a school that promises a return on your tuition investment you discover that they ripped you off, then is that what DeVos and Trump call good clean American fun? Hey boys and girls, let's go and have some fun at their expense!
2
De Vos has appointed Julian Schmoke to lead the group of 3 that are left (was 12) people looking into abuses and fraud by for profit collages. Who is Julian one may ask, he was the former dean of DeVry education group. One of the intitusions the fraud team has been investigating. The Fox is truly in the hen house. And we the tax payers and students are the hens.
3
Perhaps. But then Trump supporters will say that his Administration is doing exactly what they voted for.
1
DeVos's decision to scrap the rules that protect students is just one more horrific step in the continuing corruption of our government.
Of course, if you believe that the government's purpose is to smooth the road for all for forms of business regardless of their integrity or intentions - this is great!
Who cares about students and their burdensome debts? Who cares about lousy training of our youth? Who cares about US global competitiveness? Who cares if an education scammer is president of the United States?
Now we have a government of the oligarchs, by the oligarchs, for the oligarchs.
If there were indeed flaws in the rules that caused difficulty for smaller edicational enterprises, she could have adjusted the rules accordingly. Not hard. Good idea. Instead, another gift to grifters.
There must be something in the water that our very large formerly robust country is so quiet about the insane and destructive things that are happening in our government every day.
We are frogs in a pot of water - the water is just about to boil and we don't feel a thing.
61
"Our new approach will aid students across all sectors of higher education and improve accountability"
The previous system was working, but no system is perfect. Why couldn't she just build improvements on the success of the previous regulations? Never mind, I know why, but we'll never make progress if we keep changing direction based on diametrically-opposed ideologies every four or eight years. This is not how the people of a nation work together for the common good. The importance of a effective and exploitation-free education system should be one of the areas upon which we can all agree, and take coordinated action.
8
"Education Secretary Betsy DeVos formally moved Friday to scrap a regulation that would have forced for-profit colleges to prove that the students they enroll are able to attain decent-paying jobs,".....Once again the Trump Administration proves how deeply interested they are in supporting the interests of the common man by eliminating yet another odious Obama regulation.
7
@W.A. SpitzerYou are being sarcastic, right? Otherwise, it appears that your position is a part of the problem, not the solution to the problem.
1
exactly how are the interest of the common person helped by this ruling? Is known as I can figure the only people that are helped are the owners of these predatory institutions, correct that predatory businesses.
2
@W.A. SpitzerI
I'm sorry - I don't understand your comment at all. Are you trying to be funny? If so, I don't think there is anything at all funny about the incompetents Trump has placed in positions of authority. Betsy de Vos has absolutely no valid qualifications to be Secretary of Education. She may not be evil but she most certainly is ignorant, not to mention just plain stupid. As for "odious Obama regulation(s)" it can only be said, these regulations were meant to address the interests of the common man. Such "interests" seem to escape most of the Republicans in Congress not to mention so-called conservatives in general. If you were trying to be funny, please stop trying. Funny, you ain't!
As a retired public university professor, I advise potential students to stick to public, state-funded institutions. Tuition and fees are cheaper in comparison to for-profit institutions, teaching faculty is better qualified, and degrees and certificates are more attractive to potential employers.
60
@Eugene Phillips Factually, however, cumulative student debt at graduation from public, state-funded institutions is almost identical to cumulative student debt from independent, not-for-profit institutions. Are you purposefully confusing these institutions with the for-profit sector that DeVos is trying to prop up?
Next, options sold on the rights to persons who have signed organ donor cards as collateral for loans.
No fetal tissue research, but they will be there for a pound of tissue.
No need for anesthetic or an anesthesiologist, as it would adversely effect the bottom line.
8
De Vos is the real face of unbridled capitalism: "Let the buyer beware" is the motto. Or better, don't trust any of these people. Incidentally, in keeping with her actions, I notice that the family yachts are registered under a foreign flag to avoid Michigan tax. The thought triggered by that is "has she no shame".
17
This comment from the Secretary is 100% misdirection,”That’s why instead of targeting schools simply by their tax status.....”. She is right, it is not about tax status. It is about whose interests these institutions serve. Non for profits serve the interests of the students; for profits serve the interests of its shareholders. It is as simple as that and without a higher level of oversight these for profit companies will continue to prey on the unsuspecting. Market forces do eventually prevail (TU) but that doesn’t help the victims that have invested their time and financial resources, which includes tax payers.
4
Anybody with any sense will realize that the most vulnerable students are those who are of modest means and will fall for extravagance claims about quality of programming, ease and affordability of access, apparent likelihood of completion and the promise of awaiting employment. The low level for profits are organized to exploit this vulnerability.
This is a setback and an embarrassment originating from the minds of billionaires who act like they care about the waste of federal dollars and lower and middle class students.
23
@John The most vulnerable students are the ones ripest for the transfer of wealth from the lower classes to the rich. They are the deliberate target of these rules. The GOP will do anything to transfer wealth upwards.
2
Education, like health care, should be a right, not a privilege. What constitutes that education is up to the student--humanities, science, trade, technical.
DeVos and her for-profit advisers live in a silk-swaddling universe unavailable to 99 percent of Americans. Pretty disgusting these people have the power, and apparently the will, to ruin lives.
16
Is there no end to the incompetence of this disastrous individual? One attends university to discover truth, not focus on future employment.
15
@James Murphy - DeVos is not incompetent. She is using her power and skills to ruin the foundation of public education in our country, and remove the safeguards enacted to protect students from abuse by for-profit colleges. What I wonder is why she is filled with such animus towards the vulnerable?
2
@James Murphy That’s ridiculous. One should be going to college to learn in order to attain employment and the skills necessary for critical thinking skills. Your kind of thinking is dangerous and works under the assumption that teacher is all knowing and powerful. Professors are not god and it’s not their duty to assess and project “truth” but to guide students to discovering things themselves especially in liberal arts where that area is extraordinarily grey due to non peer reviewed work. Unless it’s a data based science and mathematics your thinking is dangerous and I hope colleges aren’t brainwashing people liberal arts students into “truth”students aren’t drones.
The takeaway here is forgiveness of almost half a billion dollars of student debt based on someone’s opinion. Why not forgive ALL education related debt? For those who missed it, Obama’s team took over the student loan industry so if you are a taxpayer, the forgivers were actually YOU. Nice that government decides who gets paid back and who doesn’t when taxpayers are the losers. What to know where the deficits come from and who ultimately bears repayment of the losses? Now you know.
2
@Ross
The benefits TO YOU of loan forgiveness to students, in economic terms, outweigh your disdain towards the relief those people are finding.
These folks are able to redirect some of their financial resources into the market stream that benefit all of us.
Not just whoever happens to be holding the profitable notes.
@Ross "Obama's team took over the student loan industry."
Actually, no, they didn't. Federal loans have always been backed by the federal government.
If you are concerned about deficits (and I sure am), kindly direct your ire to the current administration.
2
The Obama rule targeted the for profit sector but the vast majority of student debt is accrued in our nonprofit and government funded schools. The guy mentioned in this article sued Devry because it took hin 3 years to get a job with benefits. I know people who went to state schools who took 10+ years to get a job in their field. These schools also made big promises to students that gave them false hope. If all those people sued and had their loans forgiven, the system would collapse.
We need to fix the business model of schools and the accreditation system to allow for innovation in learning. I also don't mind the proposal here which will let consumers of education access more data and decide for themselves.
10
We also need to fix the fact we have a man found liable for fraud to the tune of 25 million U.S. dollars with regard to his own for profit 'University' running our Constitutional Republic into the ground with lies, division, and more likely than not - worse.
And allowing his cronies to make it easier for fraudulent folks to impose their greed on all of us in the future.
Albeit it at a breakneck economic pace.
3
@Milt
Traditional colleges and universities don't claim tightly focused job training, except in certain specialized fields like teaching, medicine, engineering. Even those are based on a foundation of liberal arts. For profit businesses referred to as colleges promise training for a specific job with the expectation of employment in that field.
When a student majors in English, or Biology, or History, no one tells that student that he or she will land a job doing that. The expectation is that the person will be educated, not trained.
4
Should we expect anything different from someone whose fortune was made though the same snake oil tactics that many of the for-profit colleges use to entrap their prey? Over the years I have seen too many vulnerable people fall for both Amway's empty promise of limitless wealth achievement as well as the For-Profits' claims of delivering glistening and glorious career paths. Whether huge personal debt is accrued in boxes upon boxes of unsaleable Amway merchandise or by a quasi-worthless degree on the wall, the end results are the same.
8
Is there no limit to the corruption in this administration? Are there no ethical standards at all?
We have a President who admits (by settlement) to operating a scam college, and a Secretary of "Education" who's principal focus is on protecting such colleges rather than their students, on protecting the perpetrators of fraud rather than the targets of fraud. Betsy DeVos is also curtailing loan forgiveness for students defrauded by for-profit colleges.
This reminds me of the steps this administration has taken to destroy the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau which protects the public from predatory banks (Wells Fargo, etc.) and Payday loan sharks.
This administration's goal is to protect liars, cheats and con artists at the expense of the public. Should we really be surprised given who is the current Chief Executive?
48
Great, time to build Hogwarts University, we can have cake and courses in magical thinking...
Ultimately the problem is when we view students as customers, hard to access a student's work when the customer is always right.
You get an A, and you get an A...
10
If DeVos favors caveat emptor (buyer beware), why not simultaneously erase the provision that student loans cannot be discharged in bankruptcy. Then the predatory lenders who finance these institutions will have to look at at whether the education is "real".
9
So much for any protection against predatory business practices. The Trump administration could careless about consumers. DeVos is a disgrace to her office. I am all for innovation in education, but this is huge step backward. Lying, cheating and stealing from students should not be part of the educational process.
6
Of course, DeVos is all in favor of deregulating private education. Before becoming the [immensely unqualified] secretary of education, she was deeply involved in private, for profit education and had never had any kind of involvement in public education. She was put in her position for the same reason Scott Pruitt and some many other Trump nominees were selected: to destroy the very institution she was named to head.
30
What? You expect better from a cabinet member whose in-laws continue to make their billions through a thus far legal pyramid scheme?
10
I have a suggestion for students looking at colleges— don’t pick a for-profit institution. Supply follows demand, so if you don’t want to provide DeVos and her ilk with the lifestyles they demand, attend a nonprofit college or university. There are lots of top quality institutions out there.
30
Here's a thought. Let the For Profit education sector do whatever it likes; no government oversight at all. BUT each school in this sector would be required to contribute to a reserve pool that would repay the loans incurred by students who were unable to repay those loans themselves.
I, for one, would love to see the regulations they would start imposing on their members if they were the ones who had to be accountable for their industry practices instead of dumping that accountability off to me, the taxpayer.
4
Time was that the bogus claims of schools like ITT and there ilk were seen for the frauds that they were and were ridiculed. Ads on UHF, the backs of comic books and even matchbook covers gave away their ludicrous nature. Fast forward fifty years to when the upper echelons of government defend this silly industry and all I can ask myself is : Where did it all go wrong?
13
It was never right.
2
...And I'm sure that Betsy DeVos would have given all of her praise and support to both "Trump University" and Donald Trump had she been the Education Secretary at that time.
I will be so relieved when this nightmare presidency and it's greedy and cowardly Republican controlled Congress is tossed into the waste bin of history.
47
Makes sense. The end game is disrupting the status quo in higher ed now characterized by skyrocketing tuition, expensive campus amenities and courses of dubious value. Oligarchies are bad in Russia--and in the education industry. Best open up to more innovation and competition--with ample information and transparency about all institutional players.
2
Makes no sense to take away regulatory power to deny federal funds to schools that chest their students. To say otherwise is to champion mountebanks, which you may but not with my tax dollars
Well, thank God that Trump can again open his 'university' when he leaves the White House. Maybe he can now offer to teach students how they too can become POTUS with absolutely no qualifications.
87
@Anne-Marie Hislop plus a course at TU on how to defraud both the consumer and the u.s. treasury at the same time.
2
@Anne-Marie Hislop
He should grab this opportunity and reopen it right now. Saudi Arabia is looking for a "friendly" place to stash the thousands of students that are leaving Canada. Quid pro quo.
1
I’m not the supporter of Trump but the policy of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is right. Before graduating from high school, students should gather information about colleges or schools and decide which one they should study at. Of course teachers and parents can give advice to students. They will choose the colleges and schools whose degrees are useful and attractive to companies. Those with good reputation will survive and others disappear. The government should not involve in fair competition between colleges or schools.
8
@Matsuda
And how will they get all the information to make a well informed decision?
Show us how that's done.
Be specific… like your future and livelihood depended on it.
Be specific on the steps a 20 year old should take. And, how to avoid misinformation and being scammed by an industry that is being deregulated.
Tell us.
We'll wait.
2
@Matsuda Check back your economics. You are ignoring that the market for (higher) education is plagued with information problems (a student does not truly know what she is paying for and is vulnerable to abuse by, among others, trump university). That is why for-profit universities are more often than not a failure. That grants the need for government intervention to protect consumers and the market itself (markets afflicted with information problems can easily collapse), which explained Obama's regulation (which recall came after quite a few big scandals).
4
@Matsuda
So folks that enroll in an educational institution that says it has a 100% successful career placement in high paying employment now will not have to prove that!
That's false advertising and a lie geared for the "school" to rake in cash with no follow up on their promise.
I remember those ad's from when I was younger I personally didn't believe them. Many folk younger than I did. They will never get that time back time lost they could have used to educate themselves and advance in their employment.
That's what the rules and guidelines attempted to do and the federal government had to help those who were ripped off by those predatory institutions.
Another roll back of Consumer Protections.
Sheesh!!!
8
How this amoral smartly dressed woman sleeps at night is amazing.
50
@BCG
Agree I was really shocked when testifying before Congress and she did not know the mission of her agency.
That screamed at me "What is she doing there?".
Meh!
If I were challenged to chart a course to eviscerate the independence of the United States and diminish it as a country, I would, among other things:
— offer cheap & addictive substances to a cross-section of its population (perhaps laced with some poison)
— limit access to health care
— politicize access to basic fetal and maternal care
— curtail education to limit the inventiveness of its people; allowing, instead, entry to the best education based on economic class
— create an oligarchy eager to co-operate in corruption
— block the historical source of population renewal by expelling and prohibiting immigration
—swell the economic underclass by denying access to birth control and thereby denying access to education
— cut taxes in order to, among other things, curtail basic services and inhibit improvements to infrastructure
— radicalize portions of the population
— give away public lands
— call for the abolishment of government
— arm the fearful
— infiltrate organizations tasked with keeping the peace
— politicize the judiciary
— undercut confidence in the free press
— place responsibility for protecting and serving the public interest into the hands of the least competent, most limited, greediest, self-serving hacks alive (see: Dolores DeVos Umbridge)
119
Thank you for answering the question that I just now posted. Well done!
2
@H Munro
Kudos. An extremely well crafted post. Thank you.
5
@H Munro
Brilliant.
And merely descriptive of what we see right in front of our eyes.
Now, a plan and steps to reinvigorate the people and prospects of United States showing the antithesis of what you wrote would be a powerful call to action and an optimistic plan that could energize the nation.
Especially the hopeless by the millions.
3
Inept secretary of education just reversed the restrictions that was placed on thieves AKA, for profit colleges. Betsy thinks it is acceptable for young kids to save and borrow so they can get a good education, and hand it to these bogus schools and have nothing to show for it. She also thinks, it is acceptable for these schools to take their money and not give students what they promised, which is a good education, and not be held responsible. What more can we expect from Betsy, being rich has nothing to do with being smart.
34
What does a billionaire who bought her way to this position know about protecting people who are looking to better themselves? What does she know about having debt ruin your life when that debt was incurred by "schools" peddling lies? What does she care? Clearly the answers to these questions are that Betsy "Robber Baron" DeVos doesn't know and certainly doesn't care as long as her and her cronies can increase their net worth. Disgusting woman.
47
Students, and prospective students, have been sufficiently warned; but, as has been said, no one has ever gone bankrupt underestimating the intelligence of the American public.
11
DeVos has no clue (just like most of Trump's cabinet). Some for profit schools scam their students with fake employment statistics, etc. in order to get the students to sign the bottom line. I personally know several people who spent about $30,000 to obtain training as ultrasound techs, etc. and who have yet to achieve a job in that field (while still owing the school thousands of dollars). DeVos is a joke.
22
@EthicalNotes
$30,000 for an ultrasound degree? I got an A.S. in echocardiography at my local community college for a tenth of that.
2
With respect, I disagree with the premise that DeVos doesn’t have a clue... of course she does, because this will be one more way she can add to her immense wealth: on the backs of students of little means. As some other writer asked: how dies she sleep at night??!!
Of course, thus is of a piece with her brother Eric Prince, making millions with his mercenaries and no doubt sleeping just fine even after massacring civilians in Iraq.
No consciences ti be seen in this administration’s appointees and lackeys.
I suffer from a bad case of Trumpaphobia and should not read stories about any of his appointees, especially at bedtime. Now I will wind up having nightmares about young people trying to make sense of a totally useless "education," while they slave at Stop'N Shops and MacDonald's, trying to pay off debts for which they got nothing and just get bigger every year.
I stopped reading the item about Gina Haspel, but not in time and will have to look under my bed before I get into it tonight, to calm myself that none of the sicko torturers she ran are hiding there, just daring me to close my eyes.
92
My next door neighbor's son was taken in by a for-profit school. I tried to explain the evil of it to my neighbor - her son has no degree and thousands of dollars to repay.
16
How is this even legal? Devos has investments in for-profit schools. Her conflicts of interest are massive. Even Jeff Sessions recused himself from the Trump investigation. Devos is immoral and corrupt. She needs to be booted out of government and sent to a desert island, where she can do no more damage.
60
@Allison: This is legal because the people of the US keeps electing GOP Congresses that approves of this actions and actions like it.
1
It's obvious. The purpose of an education system is to generate profits. The expression "Education" is to give a veneer of respectability to the real agenda.
13
Trump, making America as great as it was in 1895.
7
Simply don't waste your money supporting these schools.
4
DeVos is a creature of a sort: out to rake-in as much
profit as possible and to help her wealthy friends along the way. We Michiganders know her ilk too well: from Amway pyramid scams to right-wing politicking to private schooling profiteers at the expense of public schools and tax-payers. Now why would it surprise anyone that B. DeVos is against
Schools for Profit having to prove their education and diplomas are worthy and beneficial. And that
Schools for Profit would have to have a job placement program in place when she and her friends have been handed everything on a silver platter and have never worked a day in their lives.
17
Ed L. Respectfully your understanding of non-profit is nil. Of course, the professors, administrators, secretaries, kitchen staff, parking lot attendants and rent-a-cops did not work for free. A non-profit has expenses such as payroll. There aren't shareholders eager for return on their investments. There are stakeholders. People like you and me who benefit by living in a society of well educated citizenry, and one intolerant of corruption.
Americans have been, and value being self reliant. Being self reliant is enhanced by education and protection of the process.
9
Here's the real-deal: For-profits are in business for one reason: because they receive FEDERAL FINANCIAL AID (aka tax-payer $) and cash in off of it. When no one makes them accountable for the QUALITY of what they are offering, they will continue to prey on the low-income uneducated and take as much FEDERAL grant and loan money as they can - which is what they were doing before former govt officials stepped in to stop the raping of FEDERAL funds. Devos is giving them back their freedom to do less and steal more from the very government she works for. (I coordinate a grant program to help students complete their degrees so they can make a decent wage, and pay back their FEDERAL loans. Many students from for-profits have credits that won't transfer into legit programs/degrees, and therefore they have wasted their lifetime allotment of FEDERAL FINANCIAL AID and don't have enough aid left to complete their degrees. Then we are all stuck with the debt they are unable to pay back.)
Think critically, not politically.
35
Ed L. The situation and context of your then, and what's happening now is different. Education mills have learned how to benefit from the combination of government and naive student clients.
Of course not all colleges or universities fall into the categories of concern. But those that do are deceptive predators preying on people's hope.
If you were fortunate you had parents, teachers, group leader who educated you about contracts, gave instruction in discerning what was needed and what was wanted then added the skills of investigation. You also came from a social set that at least accepted advance education as a norm.
Re-read the stories about Trump's so-called university as it's a quick course on what concerns so many. The students are eager for gainful, interesting careers/employment and ripe for hearing what they want to hear, and the counselors are skilled in shaping those desires and the promise their particular university offers.
That promise is empty. As empty as students bank, and as empty as their 'toolboxes' og the skills promised but not taught, not gained.
There are pockets of corruption and Ms. DeVos is providing cover. If you watched her nomination process it was evident that she is ignorant of the principles of effective teaching, effective education. Her goal, her stance, her actions are political, not concern for students or education.
For profit universities must be held accountable. The alternative is our country taking another step into corruption.
12
The issue is not so much the profit made by for-profit colleges as the predatory, abusive practices that exploit and impoverish already struggling students and give them nothing marketable in return.
As usual, the policies of this administration will directly harm those segments of society least resilient and least able to protect themselves, and among these, very many from Trump's core base.
7
This Obama regulation was one of the most sensible accomplishments of his administration. I find it amazing that Republicans are in favor of government funding for worthless degrees.
16
@rtk25748
Only in the once great USA!
I met a young man today who is 60 thousand dollars in debt after a few years of classes at a now-defunct art school. The school promised him a job in animation when he graduated. What he actually got, in addition to the debt, is a bunch of credits that aren’t transferable to another school. This young man was my ride-share driver.
16
If it says "Obama" in any way, shape or form, this Administration will eliminate it. There are no rational, economic or legal reasons to justify this action.
This is all revenge for poking fun at the White House Correspondent's Dinner. The sting was so painful, the current president lacks the courage to attend them now. Someone might make a light joke and that slight would be too painful to endure.
97
Agree. That dinner was where it all started. And I don’t think Obama had any idea how bad it would become
@Michelle Llyn Michele, my comment was written with tongue in cheek. I strongly believe that protecting consumers (including students) from ethically questionable for-profit business practices is an important, valid function of government.
Let us hope that our future presidents and cabinet members protect the interests of the vast majority of citizens, not just those of the wealthy and powerful.
As a retired secondary school teacher, I find the idea of cheating folks who are trying to better themselves with bogus, for-profit hollow educational services to be particularly repugnant.
6
Jesus they don't even care they are being caught with their whole arms down the cookie jar.. and seems not enough of the voters do either!
12
@Daniel, speaking of Jesus, I wonder what he would say to the secretary of education.
There is a very strong group of right-wing proponents in Alberta who believe that education is best served by competition. There is no actual proof for this although many claims are made by adherents. However, the more rigorous studies have given little credence to this claim. While I won’t comment on many studies that have taken place. I can only comment on the information the Alberta Department of Education gathered in it’s reviews of charter schools and private colleges. The findings were not great. Many private and charter schools and private school post-secondary institutions were not bias free, over-promised results, failed to provide the skills advertised, did not deliver the advanced technology advertised, etc. The careful monitoring of these schools is warranted.
6
I ran an Ad agency that specialized in convincing young non college bound kids that “for profit education” was the answer to their future. You want to know cynical? Their student loans ($30K plus a year) were run through private financial institutions but guaranteed by the US Government.
30% of daytime TV ad revenue was spent on convincing young people that for profit schools were their ticket out of poverty. That was exactly the same message from Trump University.
Betsy DeVos is beholden to that industry. It’s got nothing to do with education but more to do with satisfying shareholders.
30
Hey, come on—- she needs more doilies for her couches and chairs in Holland, Michigan...
She’s ALL for profit- Education not so much.
7
For-profit colleges are to education what payday loan outfits are to banking.
24
Every day marks the appearance of a new travesty, a new miscarriage of justice wrought by The Trump Administration. Every day.
20
When you run a for-profit college, they last thing on your mind is whether your student find work. You're in it for profit, and the students get what they deserve.
6
This is a travesty. Let the buyer beware. These for profit schools do slick ad campaigns to lure unsuspecting people, who are often the first in the family attending college, into a program. They promise everything but offer far less than public and private well regulated colleges and universities. Betsy de Voss should be ashamed of herself. Maybe she should just set up Snake Oil stands. This is all about pushing business and cheating people who want to build a better life for themselves and there families. States need to protect prospective students with their own regulations. We need LeBron James as Secretary of Education.
14
This change will allow money-making machine to be used by for-profit colleges that would not qualify under the gainful employment rule: government loans can again be used at the for-profit colleges to fund education that the graduates later have to repay, without having gained skills that help them get better paying jobs. Useless for-profit colleges get to keep the money.
The "Erase Obama Gains" train continues.
6
I have a friend who gave his life savings to a phony professional school that lied about employment opportunities. There were absolutely no opportunities in that rapidly declining field of work and the school brought in many people to carry on the lie. This is outrageous.
9
DeVos seems to think that "academic freedom" includes the freedom to defraud.
7
When Mrs. DeVos was nominated for her position, I wrote to Senator Richard Burr in opposition, to no avail. Charlotte had a for profit law school and other for profit institutions that accepted students with inadequate qualifications, loaded them with debt, and left them with few employment opportunities. In the end, taxpayers have to pick up the tab for loan defaults. This is wrong.
10
In other words, Trump U can reopen its doors and resume its fraudulent awarding of "degrees".
The conflicts of interests are par for the course with this corrupt administration.
Education was valued in this country from the first Massachusetts colony as mandatory for children. When you don't have professional educators, don't care about student learning, and prioritize the monetization and profit motives of schools or universities, this is what you get.
A Kentucky educator many decades ago wrote a book "The Thread that Runs so True" about his experiences teaching. My mother similarly started out teaching in a one-room school in Kentucky, and my great grandfather helped build one of those schools. On both sides, I have educators in my background from university professors to my mother's one-room schoolhouse early years.
Betsy DeVos -- like all the other ignorant, ideological and unqualified plutocrats given positions by Trump -- is a destructive force. So many generations of American educators have contributed to this country, and so many generations of students have benefited.
We live in a sad time. Racism and bigotry, anti-science, anti-environment, anti-education.
Please vote for Democrats everyone. We can't survive much more of this.
26
@smb Well said.
3
Caveat emptor should not apply to education in any form. How does the public miss this as an abdication of Government's responsibility to its citizens to keep them from entrepreneurship gone wild? With con-man "news" as cover, this group has deregulated the foxes in our henhouses and someday, there may be no more eggs even for the plutocrats. As a citizen, I mourn for the end of honesty and the idolizing of those who cheat, lie and steal from the least of our fellows.
7
As someone who works in a poor and underserved community, I have a firsthand view of the outcome when for-profit schools take advantage of ill-informed, inexperienced people. They are lured into programs that lack accreditation and have lousy reputations. They leave with a debt they did not understand they were incurring. These are not people whose parents attended college and many are not yet equipped with the skills they need to succeed in the work world. I have successfully shielded many people from being conned by Trump-like "universities" and helped them pursue skill training from reputable institutions who have a record of success. Unfortunately, most people do not have advocates to protect them.
These schools should be illegal and so it is no surprise that the Trump Administration protects them. He is an embarrassment to all but the uninformed and the greedy.
200
Repeal a rule requiring schools not to scam and defraud - in more familiar terms - commit robbery. So companies can now legally steal, just not people. Just another corporate give away like the tax law on the backs of tax paying americans.
14
@Harry, the corporate take-over of the USA!
Maybe she could pay back all those defrauded with the tax savings she got registering her yachts off shore
8
We need to get rid of Trump if only to get rid of Betsy DeVos.
17
DeVos is about as useful as a graduate from a fake school, since she's never been to a public school.
8
Anytime that a republican says it simplifies an older rule means that it actually helps only the rich. In a nation run a muck with swindlers do we really need to allow for profit universities to pray upon the gullible and to cheat them out of their dreams. I suppose this means that Trump University, despite all of its scams and false promises, would now be legal. Betsy Devos, with her fleet of airplanes and yachts and billions of dollars, is the exact opposite of noblesse oblige. With Price and Pruitt gone she is running head to head with Ross and Zinke for the most corrupt cabinet official.
11
Although it's increasingly clear that almost every department secretary was appointed to damage, obstruct, and eventually dismantle the programs they are supposed to lead, DeVos is by far one of the most relentless, and determined of this lot. Her "qualifications" to effectively dismantle the Department of Education are impressive: Strong supporter of "alternative education," complete ignorance regarding public education, a marked hostility towards public school teachers and their unions, and the support of her family fortune to force her "reforms" across the country. Among all the swamp denizens, Mrs. DeVos clearly stands out as one of the cruelest, most cynical, but powerful deplorables.
12
What's next? The top tax bracket paying a zero percent rate? Nothing would surprise me now. I guess it's a matter of time until Trump University is back in business. Only the best people.
8
DIPLOMA MILLS . . . FULL SPEED AHEAD!
As someone who's in that racket herself, she's been waiting to do this since day one.
8
Could there be a connection between Betsy DeVos’s investments in delinquent student loan collection and her rescinding laws to protect students from predatory for profit colleges (ex. Trump “University”)?
Inquiring minds want to know.
10
Words fail me here. I admit to not reading the entire article because it sickened me. This current administration is more and more resembling a predatory mafia that has as its aim nothing short of destroying all public institutions, including education, so as to privatize them with the further aim of extorting and ruthlessly exploiting the public. Clearly, the executive branch of the U.S. government has been hijacked by a criminal underclass. When will we see an end to this?
12
DeVos is a poor excuse of a christian , obviously the biblical admonition about worshiping mammon is not part of her beliefs . Her fakery of setting up charter schools and belief in them is a glaring and poorly covered up real reason for getting the rest of us to pay for them while siphoning money from public schools and give it to the religious ones . The obscenity is that she passes it off as being better for poor kids . She is the female version of Scott Pruitt ; look for Trump to replace her once she finishes dismantling the Department of Education and her job is done .
8
Another disgusting rapacious move by a Trump person. DeVos, a billionaire living in a gated compound isolated from the 'common man', now removes the last vestige of protection in education. Education is now 'Buyer be ware'.
She, like her family - think Amway, door to door pyramid scheme - knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
9
It’s because her family has a vested interest in for profit education. They are as corny as it gets.
8
Sounds like Trump is getting De Vos to prepare the way for him to resurrect Trump University. It’s a perfect storm for Trump: no accountability and no consequences for ripping off students and discriminating against their ethnic origins.
No doubt he plans to make a killing. I’m sure he’ll get Sessions to indemnify him for that, too.
6
DeVos is the prime example of conflict of interest. How she is allowed to make adverse decisions for millions of students when she stands to make money off those decisions is despicable. She has no shame.
8
Having had graduates from my high school classes attend a profit-making 2 year job training college by taking out large loans and then have no help or success finding a job, De Vos's undoing of Obama policy makes me furious.
6
Why should trump 's rust belt dropout supporters or his gated community pampered puppies care. It's those other people who make so much annoying noise causing the problem. If they would only shut up.
4
Shocker. Woman who lives the good life off of pyramid schemes essentially promotes more scams.
10
In the hyper-capitalist dystopia republicans envision for America, if you get ripped off by a dishonest and corrupt business. it's your own fault. For Profit colleges are the predators and their students are the prey.
5
As long as public subsidized loans are not going to these "colleges", it's ok to let them exist. After all, there is no law preventing taking advantage of the ignorant - Fox News is vastly profitable.
5
This woman is a menace. Maybe they'll be a silver lining and she'll destroy education in our country so badly we'll be forced to fix it... finally. But, I hate to see so many suffer so badly in the meantime.
8
Of course she doesn’t want these potential students to get a decent education and good jobs. She’s wants them barely educated and thousands of dollars in debt, so out of desperation, they’d take jobs barely paying the minimum wage. Maybe they’ll pay her to work at her family’s amway pyramid scheme or go work for brother Erik Prince as a mercenary soldier. Meanwhile, she and her cronies at the worthless for profit “colleges” will make millions off the backs of these poor misguided students. What a despicable woman she is!
6
Outrageous! The people Trump has surrounded himself with. I don't know which is the worst: fundamentalist ideologues, ignoramuses, plutocrats, political hacks, stooges, grifters, or criminals of various stripes. Here we have the combination of an ignorant, fundamentalist ideologue, plutocrat whose husband's fortune derives from a long con and who has been put in charge of our nation's Education Department. Sometimes it feels like an updated version of "Madame Butterfly."
7
She's laying the groundwork so Donald can reenter the fake university business when he leaves office.
5
Betsy DeVos: "Hey. . .I can make this Education Sec position really pay off . . .to me and my friends that is. Is this a great country or what?"
3
Oh, that Betsy!
Raised in the rarefied atmosphere of Amway, the Poor Little Rich Girl never had the chance to develop that "fairness thing". I'm sure that talk at her dinner table when she was a child was all about price to earnings ratio and compound interest.
It wasn't about how a society worked or how those who have garnered the most money from society (by buying those who write the Laws) owe it to society to pay-back so that society doesn't collapse.
For the Betsy's of this administration (and they are ALL Betsy's) "duty" is a dirty word, something to snicker about after church, for, oh, yes, Betsy, like all of them, is a gung-ho Christian, you know, one of those "new" Christians who never think of fairness or duty or WWJD.
In BetsyWorld there is no accountability from those taking in the bucks.
No one (with money) ever has to explain. They can lie. They can cheat or steal you blind. But in BetsyWorld, no one ever has to be accountable for the product they offer, even if it destroys lives.
Donald J. Trump was fined $25,000,000 when he pulled this same trick. He lied about what he would be offering the students of "Trump University". He lied about the books.
He lied about your chances of employment afterwards.
He lied about all of it, and when he got bored with lying about all that, he ran for president so he could pull an even bigger snake-oil scam.
Betsy likes that part.
The Amway Girl is happiest when she's in on the scam.
Or, can even set it up.
Oh, that Betsy!
9
@rosa, so very well articulated!
1
DeVos' friend's make money, paid for by the American taxpayer, while taking advantage of the nation's most vulnerable families. The worst Education secretary...ever.
10
DeVos, vacuous, entitled, so far out of her depth that she cannot follow any process but the same tired old republican play book. A fanatic pure and simple. Committed to predetermined, totally bankrupt conservative dogma.
A zombie continuing to plod around in circles searching for a meal.
Her preference is the future of our children. The brains of our children...
10
What’s astounding about Trump officials and their supporters is their utter contempt for people, their corruption of the notion of public service, their hostility toward or blatant ignorance of their agencies’ missions, and their shameless profiteering at the expense of the public. And yet what’s even more astounding is that they have the unflinching support of almost half the electorate who stand to lose mightily from this willful corruption. The scary part is when the bill comes due Trump supporters won’t know who fleeced them.
14
My mother was on the high school Board of Education in my hometown. The local businesses sent representatives to a meeting in the early 89s demanding that the schools do a better job preparing students for (their particular) industries. They had a list of specific (highly specific) courses they wanted the high school district to run, courses that would train students in operating procedures for current equipment the companies owned.
She asked them, "Will you pay for these courses?" No, they would not.
She asked them, "Will you pay for the equipment necessary for these courses?" Ni, they would not.
She asked them, "Will you guarantee employment for the students who pass these courses?" No, they would not
The she said, "Well then, I don't see why we should pay for your training courses that will not benefit companies that don't use your equipment "
They thought she was amazingly unreasonable.
When she was up for re-election later that year, she was returned with 85 % of the vote...
44
"force them to prove the gainful employment of their graduates"
I'm a college grad from a New York "not-for-profit" university (apparently all the professors, administrators, secretaries, kitchen staff, parking lot attendants and rent-a-cops worked for free) and I have no recollection of anyone there guaranteeing me "gainful employment" upon graduation. I never assumed for a moment that a college degree was an ironclad contract for a life of success. I figured that it was up to me to make my way in the world, blaming no one but myself if I fell short. Why is a degree from a "for profit" university any different? Is it too late to sue the state of New York for the fact that I'm not a millionaire, or that the current state of my employment is not "gainful?"
5
@Ed L. It is not about job guarantees but a strong indicator of the reputation of the educational qualifications gained. If a large percentage of graduates get employment in the filed that is a strong indicator that the course from that college will likely assist graduates in attaining employment in the market. If not many do, either the course of the college or both are probably best avoided
16
You misinterpret the issue. The problem is that many for-profit colleges (Trump University included) don’t actually teach meaningful information and skills. For-profit colleges exist solely to extract money from students, not to prepare them for the future. For-profit schools are not truly schools, they are sham organizations preying on those who don’t know better.
And of course you expected to find meaningful and gainful employment from attending a public university otherwise you wouldn’t have attended. You knew there was no guarantee, but you expected that coupled with hard work you would find a measure of success in life after earning a degree. I’m afraid you are being disingenuous. I simply don’t understand why.
@Ed L. :It is different because of the fact that you include in your statement. The non-profit college did not lie about employment. There was no fraud.
There are more regulations on antique dealers than Betsy DeVos wants to place on for-profit-schools. Anyone can be an antique dealer who can afford a business license. DeVos isn't capable of filling out the license application honestly.
Her attacks on American education are cold and mercenary. Her brother be proud!
God better be looking out for our America, Christians like DeVos won't.
Please vote, like it's your last chance.
39
Put this rich woman in jail.
She knows as much about education as a 2 year old knows about electrical engineering.
God help American schools
37
Does this surprise anyone?
11
These colleges are sold as investments. That’s the goal, make as much profit as possible by charging the maximum that student loans will pay. Then flunk the student and keep the cash, multiply by 20,000 and it adds up.
14
The shill for her family's investments in for-profit "colleges is attempting to release the hounds of corruption. Ms. DuhVos remains a perfect fit for the massivley corrupt Trump administration.
It all reminds me of when the libertarian economist, Alan Greenspan emerged from Reagan's Greenspan Commission, as The Great Deregulator, and proceeded to liberate every industry in America from the very regulations we counted on to keep bankers honest (yeah, I know, obese probability of that!), the waters and air clean, to protect American workers from the harm of shareholder value, and on and on.
Ms. DuhVos has not one cell in her body devoted to, or with the experience of, improving public education and its access by all Americans. She is in for the money, just like DJT and his family and sycophantic "advisors."
But, like Ronald Reagan, she does have that gift of smiling for the cameras.
17
Look -- it has already been authentically substantiated (i.e . it is not "fake news") that many "institutions" in the for-profit sector have been predatory in their search for loan-prone students. Trump University, an undeniable offender, is merely the tip of the problem nation wide.
DeVos is looking out for her own, pure and simple. Vote this nest of swamp-creatures out in 2018!
20
As with most tRump admin. changes, I ask who's lives are being improved by this decision?
The answer is typically a small group of well-heeled supporters and not the average American.
16
This is wonderful news for educational freedom. Students should be allowed to attend any school they wish regardless of job opportunities available after graduation.
2
@Rolf
And boaters should be able to buy life jackets without buoyancy, even if the manufacturers claim otherwise.
56
@Rolf, reminds me of DeTocqueville’s observation that in America “rich and poor were equally free to sleep under bridges....” Go into deep debt for a substandard education - why not?
1
@Rolf Freedom to not get a job is the right of every American! hahahahaha Seems like you might want to avail yourself of some of these wonderful educational freedoms, Rolf.
1
The real question is, does the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection have any willingness, or ability, to take up the slack created by Betsy DeVos's decision to end the Obama rule providing some meaningful regulation of for-profit colleges? The FTC describes one of its missions as "protect[ing] consumers by stopping unfair, deceptive or fraudulent practices in the marketplace. We conduct investigations, sue companies and people that violate the law . . . and educate consumers and businesses about their rights and responsibilities."
https://www.ftc.gov/about-ftc/what-we-do
Assuming the FTC has not (yet) been hollowed out by Trump's concerted efforts to trash our federal administrative agencies, the FTC should be able to impose penalties on for-profit colleges for luring in unsuspecting students with false promises of jobs after graduation based on false data.
That being said, if the for-profit colleges are making no such false claims, then it's the responsibility of potential enrollees to "do their homework" and find out what the for-profit colleges really have to offer.
Caveat emptor.
11
The good news is that only Trumpettes will enroll in these schools, so they will remain uneducated, and eventually disappear as a Darwinian result. (Something that will also not be taught at those schools.)
19
I can only hope these schools continue to provide job data in their own interests.
1
I could never accept that wealthy people amassed a fortune entirely honestly, but then there are those that are just plain criminals with willing lawyers. The new school performance database reliance is just like fine print; no one reads it. Perhaps that was the intent.
8
The Trump administration must have dredged the rankest swamps in America to find goons that he has working in his cabinet. There was a reason safeguards were put in place to protect students who wanted to better themselves and now there is a reason the rules will be abolished, greed with no accountability are standard policy in the Trump administration.
18
"Education Secretary Betsy DeVos formally moved Friday to scrap a regulation that would have forced for-profit colleges to prove that the students they enroll are able to attain decent-paying jobs ..."
Of course. Why would anyone who is taking out many thousands of dollars of loans want to know whether they will ever have a chance to earn enough to pay those loans back, especially since the loans cannot be discharged in bankruptcy?
Greed Over People rides again.
42
@Joe from Boston.
People definitely should know whether their loans are a good investment. That should also be the case for every student majoring in philosophy, sociology, and gender studies at every nonprofit college and university. But try to require that and sit back to listen to the whining and wailing.
There's a lot of grifting to do between now and the election.
16
Brought to you by the folks who scammed thousands at 'Trump University' - and paid $25 million to sweep that fraud under the rug shortly before the 2016 election.
What more do we really need to know?
41
...so that government of the millionaires, by the millionaires,for the millionaires, shall not perish from the earth.
26
Why is free market capitalism so hard for those on the left to understand? Profit making enterprises, free to conduct business in whatever manner makes the most money for their owners and corporate officers, are what made America great.
Governmental regulation of business in any way is unAmerican. President Trump is right to eliminate fourteen existing regulations for every new regulation that is imposed. And the idea of the president being required to reveal, or even to know, which regulations are being revoked is none of the general public’s darned business.
Also, Trump’s mission to reverse every one of Obama’s so-called “accomplishments” for embarrassing D.T. at a dinner party, must include all regulations. All of them. That’s only fair.
Stop signs, red lights, driving on the right side of the road... Who’s driving this tractor-trailer me or the government? How long will free matket patriots put up with this regulatory tyranny?
No more governmental regulations!
No more governmental regulations!
Drive your rig in whatever way maximizes profits! That’s the American way.
MAGA
21
@Tom W Because if we are free of regulation of student loan money, there should be some means to make sure that those loans will not be taken by schools that will not offer gainful employment. It is the other side of the scale for private schools which cannot exist without giving students loans...which students will pay back....or not. Then it is us who will pay. Corporate welfare.
9
@Tom W - free market capitalism, until the industry needs a bail-out circa Texas S&L debacle and the last recession.
All the rewards and none of the liabilities make America worse again.
"Free market capitalism" LOL...dependent almost solely on loans made by the federal government to students at usurious interest rates...a huge surtax on the working and middle classes, and unlike Donald Trump's and his cronies' terrible business decisions/debts, not dischargeable by bankruptcy, or like the Wall Street bankers' terrible business decisions/debts, not bailed-out by the taxpayers.
Future: Higher Education (around the World) will be run by people who actually did very well in School, when they were Students. That does make sense, doesn't it? So, people like Trump and Betsy DeVos will not be making decisions regarding Education. They did not do very well.
For Your Information: The Top Score in Higher Education is the Brilliant IQ Score. The earliest that can be certified is at 52 years old. The person has to be beyond the Ph.D, basically. This information is not "fake news".
These For Profit Colleges will not exist, in the Future. So, problem solved. Accreditation is going to get a lot harder to receive.
Once again, we must ask ourselves why do people with conflicts of interests directly to their assigned agencies continue to be appointed in cabinet positions?
Why do energy affiliates becomes heads of EPA? Why does someone with heavy investments in for profit schools get to become the head of the Department of Education (which predominantly covers public schools, as most are public!)? How can the wolf be in charge of the hen house?
Why are there no laws that prohibit people from holding government positions that directly regulate industries that said people are heavily invested in financially?
The system is broken. The system has always assumed that certain norms will be upheld. However, these norms must be written into law, or else openly conducted policies of that corrupt and poison the overall welfare of the American society will be continued without any impediment. Soon, DeVos might as well shove government money straight into her own pockets. Why not do another Pruitt or Carson, by treating the government as their own private piggy bank?
31
What accreditation criteria are DeVos and her cabal planning on creating to compare successful schools like state and non-profit private universities with profit based businesses like ITT and trump university? Surely some false advertising gimmick will be forthcoming to keep federal student loan $$ flowing.
Looks like it's now up to state legislatures to protect students from fraud using state business regulations.
Powered by its own stench, trumpublican corruption marches on...
22
Many commentators are being unfair on the role being played by for-profit colleges in America's education system. After all, our President ran one.
Time will tell as to the employment prospects of the Trump University graduates but they will surely benefit from the solid schooling they received in such business practices as bankruptcy and shafting suppliers.
9
There is an old concept called “merchantability” in business law. It means, roughly, that the product you are selling does what you claim it does.
That is not as strong as an implied warranty, much less an express warranty. Put simply, a product is merchantable if it is of commercially acceptable quality.
This rather low bar, in the context of for-profit education, means that getting a diploma or certificate from the school results in a commercially acceptable percentage of graduates being able to find jobs in the field for which they were supposedly trained.
The comparison would be to other for-profit schools, as well as non-profit schools like junior colleges and community colleges offering associate degrees.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, by scrapping the safeguards put in during the Obama Administration, wants the for-profit schools which she champions to put federal funds and student tuition payments into the corporate pockets of the schools without accountability.
How fitting for a Donald Trump appointee to want no requirement for showing a commercially acceptable quality of education.
53
@sdw There is also the doctrine of caveat emptor. I would add this would apply when dealing swamp dwellers and snake oil salesmen (one comes to mind).
1
People who can’t empathize with people who have been preyed on by for-profit schools, need to dig a little deeper. Even if you don’t empathize, you are footing the bill as a taxpayer.
I sometimes would ride the train in Chicago, and meet eyes with someone else my own age sporting a backpack or shirt with the name of a for-profit school. I know our lives are so different, and the trajectory of our lives will be so different. But what made it so?
He was a kid like me once. It’s possible he didn’t grow up in a well-to-do town. It’s possible he didn’t have parents that worked 50-80 hour weeks so he didn’t have to worry about his basic needs. It’s possible he didn’t have access to a computer growing up at home or at school. It’s possible he didn’t have anyone in his life with a college degree or even a high school degree. It’s possible he has no adult in his life to encourage or guide him. On top of that, he’s human, flawed like anyone else, and needed as much room to make mistakes.
There are so many ways things can fall out the bottom for people. The for-profit companies take that well-meaning intention to better oneself and makes that pathway for a better future much more untenable.
202
@Anna, beautifully stated, but i’ll go you one better. These schools make solvency untenable, and prosperity unattainable.
11
@Anna: It's possible that that kid on the train did have parents who worked 50-80 hours a week, but that ehy were simply not paid enough to be able meet his -- or the rest of the familiy's -- basic needs.
1
The department wrote that “these programs should be held to a higher degree of accountability than traditional two- and four-year degree programs that may have less market value.”
The "department", in the person of people like Sec'y Devos who seem to have no value for education in its own right, see a traditional college education as valuable only as job training. The rest of us don't think the right method of evaluating higher education, as opposed to career training, is "market value". There is a core issue.
The other is the different between providing an education and making a profit.
8
Correction: I left out an important part. It should read:
The department wrote that the Obama regulations “reinforce an inaccurate and outdated belief that ... these programs should be held to a higher degree of accountability ...." That is what shows they think higher education is just a jobs program.
7
I believe this is a good thing removing this rule. students should be able to have the data for making a decision that can change their lives in a good or bad way. Every point that ms. devos is pointing out is very true and glad she is making a stand for it. this could effect my future but with this rule being removed i have nothing to worry about.
1
Yes--terrific news. We must provide as many "choices" and "opportunities" as possible.
Especially a terrific opportunity to be ripped off by scam artists. Like our beloved leader and his glorious Trump University--which helped many Americans find their way to bankruptcy court.
The "little people" deserve as much opportunity as possible...
payday loans
bankruptcy-proof student loans
for profit "education"
the sacred right to NOT be forced to join a union
Of course, health care is another matter. No one is "owed" or "deserves" health care just because they're sick--that's setting the bar way too low.
11
The entire Trump cabinet was picked by Mike Pence who, himself, has been a shill of the Koch Brothers for as long as he's been in politics.
Every last pick for the cabinet was calibrated and planned with the intent of dismantling civil rights, human rights, safety regulations, safeguarding of our national treasures, and, with Congress, reversing the flow of money from the 91% to the 9%. DeVos is an oligarch in her own right, whose family owns or part owns some of the institutions that are now affected by her policies. This is corruption at its most obvious. It's surprising that it took her so long to act on this.
She's been busily upholding patriarchy, white supremacy, ableism, and rape culture in the other regulations she's rolled back.
When Trump and his accolytes are finally out, we will have a whole new nation to build from scratch and then proof against periodic attacks like these on democracy. As good as our constitution is, our founders never imagined the tenacity with which the oligarchy would work to get its way and undo this nation's social contract. But that is precisely what Trump/Pence have been doing while we weren't looking, from day 1.
---
Things Trump Did While You Weren’t Looking
https://www.rimaregas.com/2018/08/07/greed-malfeasance-never-sleep-blog4...
74
I know it seems hopeless, but a basic, well-rounded quality college education is available online for free.
I am back at the 2-year college for pre-pharm and both Kahn Academy and Coursera have bolstered my learning experience. YouTube is another excellent free resource with all kinds of tutors for learners.
Many universities offer videos to the public, even in upper level classes.
Ignorance due to lack of access to education is no longer an excuse.
8
Yeah, I learned brain surgery online myself. Please call me if you need a tumor resected or cerebral aneurism repaired. YouTube made it easy!
17
The US is missing the point when it comes to higher education and meeting what employers need. Both public and private institutions are failing to meet the demand not of just jobs of today, but more importantly of jobs of tomorrow.
Apprenticeship programs need to be brought in like they have in Germany, Australia, New Zealand, and pretty much much of the world where there is a better fit between what a graduate is able to do from day one and what an employer needs from day one.
In this way, it doesn't matter if the college is public or private, neither are getting the results for the US to remain globally competitive.
25
@James Wallis Martin we used to have that her, but the programs were run by unions. Two of my friends became apprentice electricians and got their license. Got rid of unions and now you pay for it.
3
Perfect. Now Trump University can be started back up.
88
Amway has always been about marketing - mostly overcharging folks for overhyped products - and structured like a pyramid: those at the top make off like bandits, while the saps down the chain slave away peddling overpriced detergents and the like. So, no surprises here - except it's worthless paper ('degree' certificates) from bottom-feeding institutions like, well like, Trump U . . .
34
@PS Amway offers great products for a cheap low price. Our Independent Business Operations sell them for cheap. I guarantee you will be free working from home with us. Once you reach DIamond we send you on a trip to Vegas.
A number of those being fleeced are veterans. Trump's motto should be "Profits First!"
53
@Dave
What is happening in America is what the GOP has been doing for decades and decades, it's just that they have Trump a vulgar racist and sexist that is cloaking the real agenda, that is political power to make more money for the rich.
The poor are being used and abused by the Republicans while being fed the propaganda of racism and sexism - these are just deflections for power by the rich.
Watch who gains and who loses.
1
@Dave, “Profits First,” is precisely his motto! That’s what MAGA really means
Figuratively speaking, seems her yacht is unmoored.
104
A critical question: What is government for?
In the Trump Mis-Administration cabinet, there can't be enough effort to pave the way for crony capitalism, student and customer abuse, & the many personal conflicts-of-interest in this cabinet--starting with Pres. Trump.
As I said before, this is not a presidential administration under Trump, this is a crime syndicate!
Take Trump's Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos--Please (as Henny Youngman used to say).
Betsy's financial holdings are complicated, but her investments in student collection agencies and a host of other educational "investments" are clear conflicts of interest with the educational policies she is putting in place. which stand to benefit her personally and her privatizing investor cronies.
See this list from the Center for American Progress; click on the link and read the complicated financial holdings DeVos has under each category:
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education-postsecondary/news/201...
DeVos profited from student loan misery.
DeVos has a connection to a major for-profit college
DeVos has investments at firms that also own for-profit colleges
DeVos dismissed early childhood education but profits from it
DeVos has a $1-5 million-or-more mysterious education holding
DeVos has several additional education holdings
The NYT and other media need to educate readers about the many pitfalls of for-profit schools.
155
“Conflict of interest” seem to be a common theme in this administration. Gee, I thought this was illegal.
1
The Education Department's new motto: Buyer beware.
43
@CW Agreed. As it should be. Public and Private Education should have the same student protections. In that regard, there should be a government guarantee limit. Perhaps no more than 10%-15% of the student loan. The ability of schools and colleges to package that debt and sell it to investors with no guarantees from the original (school or college) issuer has motivated fraud. Only about 15%-20% of law school graduates from the top law schools are able to get jobs that pay sufficiently to reasonably amortize student debt. The rest are mullets being abused by the education system.
1
Maybe we should abolish laws about vandalism of yachts and see how she likes not being protected.
150
@JRoebuck It was not "vandalism", they just set her yacht as free as she just set the for-profit schools.
Ah, the free market. If one eliminates responsibility, then the free market works great. Buyer beware and all that.
28
@RAD61"Free market" supported almost entirely by the federal student loan industry. Simple solution: Make these for-profit schools ineligible for federally backed student loans.
She is going to provide students with more data? If they can't make it into a non-profit private or public university, they can't read. Even many Americans who do make it into a public or private non-profit university can't read, but that's a different issue.
I don't want to pay for this. I want zero, repeat zero of my tax money going to bogus schools so some billionaire can make even more money awarding Americans worthless degrees or certifications or whatever they get. I want real schools that produce students who can get real, paying jobs. Then, they can pay taxes so future generations can get an education like they did. That's how it's supposed to work. It's not supposed to be a "for profit" enterprise making rich people richer.
Billionaires and serfs. Third world country. Here we go.
258
@CF You nailed it perfectly. 3rd world country is right. The oligarchs are running the show and all the rest will pay.
5
Of course she will do this; after all, she has a stake in for profit schools with Career Education Corporation, and for profit schools have a tendency to target students who have limited access to the internet, low grade point averages, and dead end jobs, so the for profits, which state they will get your degree done easily, heh, without having to go to class or even turn in an assignment, sound wonderful, and very unrealistic. The students get suckered into high interest student loans which they can't pay back and the retention rate and graduation rate for the for profits is deplorable, but DeVos doesn't care. She is in it for the profits, not for the betterment of education.
37
You can legitimately make the claim that career results from all degrees across all colleges is useful information to prospective students. No objection there.
You can't use that information objective as a cover to allow deception, fraud and abuse of prospective students by unscrupulous for profit colleges. The very basis of for profit schools is advertised as job training leading to gainful employment. Not true of other colleges.
22
How is it that my tax dollars are being used to fund unscrupulous scam universities that exist only to provide profit to its principals while not providing anything of value to its students or to society?
I would hope we should insist that underwriting student loans with these tax dollars should only be utilized at accredited public universities.
104
@Adrian Maaskant
Some of the non-profit private universities are also very, very good schools, especially the smaller ones who teach liberal arts and critical thinking.
Key to all of this is who writes rules of accreditation. Don't want anyone at DeVos Dept. of un-Education doing that!
3
What was it that Samantha Bee called Ivanka?
Seems incredibly appropriate when referring to this toxic vulture.
47
Democracy cannot function without a well educated citizenry. But that is the agenda of the elites in the corporate oligarchy. A poorly educated majority is easier for a small but powerful elite to control. This explains their war on public education, which has been the backbone of democracy - a system whereby the citizens have a representative voice in government.
Totalitarianism of any kind hates democracy. They seek to have total control over their citizens lives so that in the end they serve only the interests of small but vociferous elite.
Betsy DeVos and her policies serve the agenda of the corporate elite perfectly. That's why she's the Secretary of the War Against Education.
49
What if a student is already enrolled and only part way through the curriculum and the school fails? Shouldn't we still help the students?
This all seems so improper. DeVos staffed her department with the worst of Capitalism. The majority of Capitalists conduct business mostly honestly, but then there are those who have criminal minds and make their fortunes dishonestly.
To me, the additional database to outline all schools performance history is just like a lawyers fine print. In that light, I suggest, if the new rules stand, that guidance people in high schools be educated about the new database and advise each student about each college pick they make of the data and lead them to more reputable established institutions.
An abundance of criminally intent people now occupying our government has given me a very cynical attitude. Of course, no one is perfect and everyone has faults we must accept and look beyond, but these people are appallingly corrupt.
19
Betsy DeVos as education secretary is akin to Bernie Madoff as head of the treasury. There may never have been a less head of an executive department. The only silver lining to her appointment is that if she can't get educators to the polls, no one will.
62
Just reading the opening paragraphs of this article was comically bizarre. After enrolling, colleges have a responsibility to make sure graduates are gainfully employed? I wish my school guaranteed me a nice high paying job after graduating.
2
@Bob
No, the colleges have to show the DATA about whether their students got jobs after these degrees or programs. They don't have to find them a job, they have to let the prospective students know what their track record is.
Doesn't that make sense to you? Also, considering that these are job training programs and career focused, don't you think it is reasonable for them to provide info on how they do in getting students ready for work, when their whole product is job training??
40
@Bob How nice and DeVos-ian of you to completely miss the point. No one said anything about "high paying". Many of these colleges don't actually train people for the they claim to train them in (such as private nursing schools that essentially gave no training in actual nursing).
21
@Bob
You don't get it. A lot of schools aren't legit and prey on
innocent students.
18
Brilliant!
Obviously, Betsy is one of our best and brightest.
She's fully qualified to watch out for our students and make sure they don't get gypped by unscrupulous rip-offs who run worthless degree mills.
Oops. Maybe not. One of them hired her.
50
She cannot help feathering her bed, even though she is incredibly wealthy. This is our current government, ladies and gentleman. Successful grifters still grifting, because they can't stop.
180
Trump University will reopen with these changes. Briiliant.
DeVoss and her brother are both crooks. They have no business in federal government . DeVoss is bent on privatizing public schools. She dodges taxes by doing such things as registering her $40 million yacht, one of four or five, in the Cayman Islands. Her brother the founder of infamous Blackwater Mercenaries which among other things was guilty of killing a group of innocent civilians, was also caught holding secret talks with Russian agents.
212
@Richard DeVos has 10 yachts. Registering a yacht in a locale like the Caymans—under what has come to be known as a “flag of convenience”—allows those American yacht owners to effectively characterize themselves as foreigners for tax purposes, thereby avoiding the obligation of paying the standard levies...
DeVos’s yacht is reportedly worth $40 million. If the vessel was registered in Grand Rapids, Michigan—the Seaquest would likely be subject to Michigan’s 6 percent use tax. That would require the DeVos empire to cough up about $2.4 million.
More malfeasance by the Trump administration. Is there one honorable actor in the current government? I don’t think so. This latest sleazy move by De Vos shows once again who her real constituents are. Not the millions of public school students who expect a secretary of education to fight for their academic advancement and civil rights, not the college students sinking under debt and ill-prepared by colleges with dismal graduation rates and for-profits that offer sub- standard grifter created “professional” programs. The woman was not qualified to begin with, but few in the GOP will ever take a stand against such corruption either because they are cowards or are mired in distasteful practices themselves.
53
Anchoring young people with student debt and no hope of life advancement causes damages to the psyche that can not be repaired. Not to mention, the padding of pockets for private universities at the expense of taxpayers.
18
@mzsilverlake
She does not care. As long as she can make a buck. Perfect fit in the Trump administration.
1
Why anyone would want to blow their life savings on a private university is beyond me. By now everyone should know they’re being scammed.
Americans would be best served by blowing up the whole education system and starting over. My kids can go to universities that are better than 98% of US schools at a cost of less than $10k in 4 years. I honestly don’t know how I could pay for their school if I were an American.
30
DeVos knows absolutely nothing about education, student loans, gainful employment or, really, anything else outside of being a wealthy person in a wealthy family. Come to think of it, she has a lot in common with Trump. What they do know about is dipping into the stream of public money and putting a lot of it into their bank accounts.
42
Of course this makes perfect sense in our alternate universe. Thankfully we learned this week that Jean-Luc Picard will be back soon to straighten out this anomaly.
12
Why does for-profit education even exist?? Also, why for-profit healthcare and for-profit prisons?? All should be non-profit, and for the public good.
344
@Suzy
Why do they exist?
To make a profit—generally from borrowed money and/or veterans’ benefits.
16
@Suzy If you look at what our non-profit institutions are doing to their graduates at the price tag they're charging, the public good isn't the phrase that comes to mind.
2
If these schools are so great, and the leaders that run them such business geniuses, why don't they make their own loans to the students, who they say, will get jobs and pay the loans back? They can make money on the schools and also profit from the loans.
I'll answer my own question. Because the business plan is to make money on the government loans.
38
@RickK
This should seriously be a proposal should we ever again have a sane administration and Congress.
4
In other words, she's in favor of legalizing the waste of govt (student loan) money, as long as someone's making money.
61
Both Betsy and her brother Erik grew up in a religious family and have gone to work in government but both have proved to be without any scruples when it comes to money making activities. Betsy tries to change public education into a money making cow for unscrupulous people and Erik operates mercenary companies to make money on wars. I don't see any Christian values in the conduct of either of these people, they only care for money.
388
Satan would be especially proud of the little Prince children doing the Lord Mammon's work.
34
@Casual Observer And Amway was a Ponzi scheme. I had an acquaintance caught up in it. Selling Amway products nearly bankrupted her, as she couldn't stop the merchandise from being shipped to her, and was being billed for every useless box of junk she was pressured to sell or to recruit another patsy to sell for her.
Is Amway still in business or has it been shut down ?
2
DeVos is a disgrace as a pubic official. Her only interest is in profit making endeavors not in serving any public interest. She should be selling automobiles or real estate where she could concentrate on her only interest in life, making money. She has no willingness to serve in an official capacity for the public so she should not be in a position which expects that of her.
97
We are watching the last chink in the armor being removed to protecting people from becoming 2nd class citizens - education being privatized completely
You see it in the 3rd world (in particular Africa) where whole swaths of people in villages cannot afford to send their kids to even the most rudimentary school to learn even the basics.
Soon the 1st world (in particular America - if republicans have their way) will follow the same model.
35
Soon we would expect guys in open air jeeps with mounted guns showing the population the new meaning of the 2nd Amendment. With no "originalist" Supreme Court ruling necessary or observed.
What country am I living in where the secretary of education is allowed to enact this kind of deregulation of an industry she is heavily invested in? Is this a banana republic? This is sick. And on the backs of the poor. What’s next, the FDA is run by pharm execs and they now no longer have to prove their drugs work? America is in a death spiral.
616
@BBB
Yes, it is a banana republic. And, as we saw in another article today. Trump supporters largely still think he is great. They don't seem to mind that it is their precious tax dollars paying for all the malfeasances of his administration (and pay for his wall, and so forth). Sad.
13
One more example of what voters get when they put republicans in charge of government.
Now here's a case where the “for profit” school perpetrators of daylight thievery will be let off the hook. Put this is in the same category as letting a daytime shooter at Times Square just walk off.
Let’s hope this November vote will eliminate some of our “republican” problems.
She exemplifies the worst of the worst in 45's administration. In it purely for profit and self enrichment and doesn't attempt to disguise it one bit. A despicable deplorable on full display.
77
I'm not sure that Betsy DeVos ever got the memo about children being our future. Either that or she’s an incredibly depraved masochist. The mystery remains.
23
DeVos is a hack, put there to do nothing but ensure the profitability of for-profit colleges - many of which are owned or funded by Wall Street hedge fund guys. She's the swamp.
Shameful.
85
Low income voters - who couldn't afford going to college the traditional route out of high school, so DREAMED and worked and scrimped and saved and begged family and friends for childcare - will go to these thieving so-called schools and lose their savings. Then taxpayers will be left to foot the rest of their bills after they've been bankrupted. By rescinding Obama's regulation, and with his tax cuts for the super wealthy that you're also paying for, Trump is gunning to take money from YOUR wallets, Trump voters, he's not even pretending to try to put money in.
32
@common sense advocate
But education loans, unlike any other debt instrument, can't be discaharged, so these people will become modern day debt-slaves. This whole situation is a sickening disgrace.
23
@WallaWalla The worst evil is that student loans cost more than mortgages (greater than 3% interest) and most come with provisos that prohibit extra payments on principal in order to pay down as quickly as possible. Every extra penny sent on one's student loan payments is divided according to the current principal and interest shares.
That is unbelievably avaricious.......
This is an example of big corporations gaming the system with the assistance of big government.
The swamp has been drained.
The unfortunate part it has been replaced with a CESSPOOL.
56
The press needs to give far more attention to covering the students who have been scammed by these for-profit colleges.
And please, support Michelle Obama's initiative to encourage voting. 40+% of the population has yet to vote.
27
Legalized fraud on a massive scale...but it's what Trumpsters stand for.
20
How many derogatory but completely accurate names should we have for this person? We could comb every language, listing hundreds of thousands of synonyms, and, yet, we would not even begin to scratch the surface of describing the wickedness that is this woman.
22
That scream you just heard was mine.
14
As a retired academic, this news about DeVos--and all news about her--is just heart-breaking. The smallest and most remote community college provides an education far better than these for-profit schools. When I was young and poor I had the good fortune to take my first college courses at one of California's virtually free community colleges in the 1960's. I had hoped those schools would be a model for every state, but the trend instead was to for-profit "schools." Had every state developed a system of low cost community colleges like California, I doubt Trump would have been elected--as preposterous as that may sound. That first year of college transforms students by exposing them to the rich variety of the intellectual life.
72
A democracy cannot function without a properly educated citizenry. DeVos may not know this, but better education equals a more progressive and rational outlook. High-quality, well-funded public education based on a national standard that assures all people learn core subjects is our birthright. And what we haven't had throughout nearly my entire life, as privatization has chipped away at sector after sector where profit cannot be the motivation because it threatens civil rights and the public good. Like airlines, schools, and prisons. And has blocked shared, public models where we desperately need them. Like healthcare, housing, pensions, treatment for addiction and mental illness, and transit.
Why do Americans fail to understand what makes a nation truly great? Why have Americans ceased to care what kind of world exists outside their doors? Why is there such fear about assuring life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to all Americans, which can only be done when every person has assured access to housing, healthcare, and education? Our growing ignorance is why. The arc of my life that began with Reagan has trended towards systems that serve greed, especially those who can afford to be greedy, and deny our shared fate. What world do you want to walk into, every day? I want to open my door and see informed, rational, healthy, housed citizens. Everywhere. Enough!
55
@Miller
"A democracy cannot function without a properly educated citizenry. DeVos may not know this."-- I'm sure the Republican majority in Washington does know this and fears a citizenry armed with knowledge of science and history.
19
It seems De Vos may have missed her calling. She should be selling Amway. Or, maybe she thinks she is? Actually, she’s doing a great job for military recruitment. No young person will be able to afford college (or get a decent paying job) and will inevitably join the armed forces to earn towards college (if they live). At a minimum, it is clear that, policy-wise, a billionaire is not fit to set policies affecting the middle class as they don’t understand the importance of starting out on solid ground (or don’t care). One is only young once. If you are compromised out of the gate it’s not likely De Vos is going to pay for any “do-overs.” But, with never ending war there will always be lots of work to go around.
16
Make College Education An Amway Scam
...brought to you by Betsy DeVos and the billionaire DeVos family Amway Scam.
"We take your money and your future in exchange for your financial ruin"
Trump-DeVos 2018
Nice GOPeople
239
GOP as in greed over people.
3
For-profit schools should be paid for out of the future income of their graduates. Have a ‘share of income’ for some length of time, tax deductable, which pays the school. Not all students will be big winners. Some might be the next Zuckerberg. Let the payout to the school be related to the quality of education, not a debt that can’t be bankrupted.
7
Talk about conflict of interest. How can she and her fellow Republican co-conspirators keep a straight face.
She should be removed for conflict of interest as she and her family are heavily invested in private for profit institutions
Maybe the Veterans Administration can at least protect Vetetans by not funding for profit institutions when it comes to funding education for Veterans. This would ensure that Vetetrans get a quality
education with a degree that counts.
It would also limit the amount of lawsuits regarding the for profit schools.
If Trump University had given what they promised to their students they never would have been shut down.
I hope every AG in the US sues the Education Department for incompetence and conflict of interest by Betsy DeVos
30
Perhaps we could just change the name to "Department of For-Profit Education." Then we could all get this horrible taste out of our mouths...
85
@Jeff Too soon for a name change as the mission has not yet been completed - but it won't be long: "Department of Tax Exempt Religious and Tax Advantaged For-Profit Education"
4
Betsy DeVos is the Marie Antoinette of education secretaries. "Why bother having regulations on for-profit schools that might protect the little people?," she's declared. "And if they can't find jobs after they get their degrees, let them eat debt!"
174
These colleges have no interest in educating anyone, nobody. They exist to collect student loan money which becomes the obligation of the students to repay. They have no interest and have shown no effort in making sure that their students can do the work and they don't care whether the education that they provide offers any value at all. That is why the rules were imposed.
When these students default, the obligation will follow them until they die, they cannot be forgiven in bankruptcy. The taxpayers cannot win and the students cannot win and these for profit colleges never have to reimburse anyone. It is truly a license to steal.
DeVos is a corrupt political appointee, one who has no regard for her obligations to the public as a public servant, nor to the people who these loans are intended to help.
132
For-profit colleges should prove they do anything...literally ANYTHING...that justifies a federally backed student loan. Because up until this point, they were a scam, plain and simple.
Easy classes with no standards, degrees that aren't worth the paper they're printed on, and tends of thousands of dollars of debt that is nearly always passed on to the taxpayer.
18
@Steve Acho and how is this any different for our nonprofit institutions?
“By withdrawing the gainful employment regulations, the Trump administration is once again choosing the interests of executives and shareholders of predatory for-profit higher education institutions over protecting students and taxpayers,” said John King, the Obama-era education secretary.
Diploma Mills and Snake-Oilers Unite !
You are now free to to move about the country and pillage and plunder people's life savings and throw them into debtors' prison for personal profit !
"Free-Dumb !$!$!"
73
All of these bad policies are going to be repealed once a liberal or sane administration is in power within a few years. This is just a blip in the road.
7
@Jonathan Sheneman
Your faith is bigger than mine. Given that the Trump masses still overwhelmingly support him despite him having done nothing but hurt their incomes and taxes, and given that way too many Americans still have no interest in voting, and given that Republicans will do anything to not antagonize Trump, I fear we are in for a long period of being de facto ruled by predatory capitalists.
3
24/7 shameless viciousness in this government. Hurry, November!
17
Even in choosing a trade school, Trump refuses to give anyone a chance at an even break.
Lets see, pop quiz time: Trump University, For-Profit “college” is found to meet none of its promises to students.
TU ends in Bankruptcy Land, damaging reputation of sole owner, a Donald Trump family corporation.
If students weren’t told by D of Ed policy, information might have not become available.
Therefore, the best bet: scrap the policy that hurt the President of DTU and the USA.
Question: how much have Trump family companies got invested in asbestos industry? Base your answer on Trump personal loyalty standards for cabinet members, similar recent actions dumping regulations connected to Trump family and friends, and proven carcinogenic and lung disease effects of exposure to free asbestos proven much worse than smoking, causing massive suits by ship builders, other industries that used highly replaceable friable asbestos.
Since this information is not currently available, make an educated guess and show your reasoning skills.
Question? Oh that’s right, we haven’t covered thinking, that’s only available in our Quick Post Grad Art of the Deal package, which features 15 minutes with the President and costs $100,000 a plate, er seat.
Ok class, forget it, lets talk about how decreasing fuel efficiency for cars, which has led to designs that cut the number of auto fatalities, must be eliminated because they make cars more dangerous.
5
She was the epitome of the useless dilettante, but thanks to gaining power via the Trump Regime, she's now a ruthless destroyer of education, and dreams. Enjoy it while it lasts, Madam. Your day WILL come. In the meantime, you should be shunned by all decent people.
106
@Phyliss Dalmatian-- Oh but she is such a devout Christian lady!! She wants her Christian Charter Schools to flourish! She could care less about anything else1
12
Shunning is the least that DeVos deserves. One can easily envision much more fitting punishments.
11
She is just Trump's sidekick. Secretary of Education - what a joke. He's just really upset that all his business ventures where any transparency was required went sour. He is such a lousy businessman and an even worse president. All of his appointees are an embarrassment to the human race. Bottom of the barrel slime defending private interests, not concerned that their job is to protect the public. These people have no shame nor decency.
20
Time for Ms DeVos to experience unemployment first hand.
82
How do these people, DeVos included, sleep at night? Is it their intention to harm consumers?
Well, mission accomplished. Great work, team. You've saved another hundred millionaires!
45
She... Needs to go...
I need to talk about how disturbing it is for our country to be so complicit to allow someone with absolutely no previous background in teaching nor administration in the education spectre, nor has she even attended a public school at the very least.
The public so far has been complicit with a lady that is in a position of power with no apparent intention of helping students and educational institutions who need aid from the government. Education is a crucial foundation for the upcoming generations, and it baffles me how much we as citizens of the United States don't seem to care.
Drain the swamp? I'm cackling.
23
Winning again ! in the executive suite. DeVos won't lose any sleep, rocked into slumber aboard one of the family yachts.
12
Her family's yachts, her husband's family's yachts, or both?
I'm gonna say both.
8
DeVos hates, hates public education. She's ok with charter schools that suck up public funds, even if they perform poorly. She'd prefer religious schools over both for their ability to indoctrinate students in the 'right' Christian values.
And as a rich member of the clan that brought us the Amway pyramid scheme, she's right at home with private, for-profit schools that too often scam their students into worthless degrees, leaving many with nothing but debt bondage.
She's basically Donald Trump with less flamboyant hair, less pizzaz, and an inability to lie convincingly.
477
@Michael Tyndall Wait. Trump lies convincingly??
8
@Jim. Trump lies convincingly to 1/3 of the population. Apparently, they can't get enough of him and his lies.
@Jim, he convinces himself, anyway...
There is nothing surprising about this action. The entire administration is focused on helping the unscrupulous increase their largess. As we have seen over and over, the goodies are frequently made on the backs of those who can least afford to be victimized. Federal regulations are nothing more than enforced morality. If those among us who are the most well off could actually behave with some sense of responsibility, we would not need federal oversight. Our Nation is in a very sad state and I wonder how much longer the average citizen is going to tolerate the abuse (and excuses) of the monied class. Like the fictional character, Dr. Zhivago, I have no desire to return to my home and find that others have decided it belongs to them.
15
I have mixed feelings on this. An English Lit major from a "state university" is probably about as likely to land a job using that degree as someone with a matching degree from a for profit university (and possibly less likely if the for profit uni is something like Yale or Harvard). I think it is at least somewhat the responsibility of the student and the parents of the student (if they are guaranteeing any loans needed) to determine the cost/benefit of any educational or job training program. With internet in every McDonald's, it's not that hard to do some substantive research. I hate seeing people get stuck having to pay for loans they took out to get functionally useless pieces of paper, but it's not terribly different from people who end up owing money from gambling on the stock market, so I'm not sure if the "public" owes them their money back (unless the "school" is proven by law to be a scam - in which case whatever assets that can be regained from the scam should be returned to the "investors"/students). There SHOULD be more government oversight on the issuance of loans for educational programs of dubious value.
8
@JeanneWhite
Which for profit institution is like Yale or Harvard?
21
@JeanneWhite
Maybe it's just your sentence structure, but you are very mistaken in thinking that an English degree either makes you unemployable or that there is no difference between a for-profit low ranked university and high quality education reasonably priced for state residences at a state university (U Wisc is one of the best).
Lots of jobs require people who can write well, generating reports, marketing material (you can be sued if you lie), talking to people in sales or other public positions .. and you can also leverage your skills into high level management.
http://www.dearenglishmajor.com/blog/how-much-money-do-english-majors-make
High quality institutions yield high quality paper.
Community colleges can provide job training or bring people up to college level.
All public educations are worth something ...
8
@JeanneWhite
When state universities start advertising about how great their English degrees are and making false claims about their graduates using their English degrees to earn big salaries, then you might have a point.
5
the new system is going to be that if you sing other people up, you get a piece of their tuition! Who doesn't love a multi-level marketing scheme that encourages people to use their friendships to enrich their pockets? Wee haw. Isn't it fun how money buys power? Who needs a meritocracy. What, you really want the amazing pro social innovators running the show? Ugh, just think, they'd be creating a world where we'd expect folks to ride their bikes more. This way, a college student gets to be a profit center for the wealthy. It's a way for them to matter. I mean, sure, they will be traumatized and becomes resigned or get irrationally violent, but then that's more stuff for the rest of us!
And yes, I am being sarcastic. Le Bron James does seem like an appropriate choice for Secretary of Education. Actually, I think I'd ask him to make recommendations. You know why? I have a funny feeling that is what he'd want to do. Although even if he took the role on, the result would be him collaborating with all the wise educational innovators. And then, America will become great again. Educate the poor if you want to drive the economy and find innovative pro social solutions for the challenges we are creating.
8
Doesn't Trump have one of those "for profit" universities.
10
Well I guess the children of the working class can be fleeced by useless trade schools that will no longer need to fear the loss of federal support. But wait aren’t their parents part of Trump’s base? Looks like a great way to grind down working class families.
68
This is no surprise; she was hired to wipe out Obama-era rules by a bigoted president. The problem was always that there were few safeguards to protect unsuspecting students from the for-profit schools that pray on all of us. After a run of abuses by the schools that DeVos is now lobbying for, regulations were put in place. Now we have this embarrassment as secretary of education. What do GOP voters have to say in her defense?
24
With Pruitt gone, I guess DeVos wins the Most Corrupt prize. The competition is stiff for that award.
367
@CHE: You got Wilbur Ross in strong contention. Insider trading and outright theft are some of the allegations that look they are sticking.
8
Don't rule out the new EPA Secretary. Check the NYT article regarding his proposal to deregulate asbestos. Your right the competition is tough.
When "tens of thousands of complaints from student borrowers who said they were left with worthless degrees. The Obama administration forgave at least $450 million in taxpayer-funded student debt." Did the Administration then turn to those Schools to recover that money?
5
The Trump University protection rule...
2 trillion unfunded tax cuts for the rich. 2 trillion unfunded military budget and another 2 trillion unfunded space balls port. The sad part is we can not fund healthcare for poor kids, poor kids free school lunches, meals on wheels for seniors, educating our children, medicare for all!
88
@Bill . . . huh, so what is your point. Trump is doing exactly what Trump has always done. Yeah, I know, the saps were promised otherwise. But they are saps . . .and saps get what they vote for.
3
These institutions have been around for years and despite their advertising to the contrary I suspect they represent a poor bargain for the student. It is my view that most of these market themselves to those without academic qualifications. Some, however, seem to be more scam than school. The rules offered a modicum of protection for students. That the administration has rolled them back seems a victory for the scammers and a loss for ordinary citizens. Perhaps the real motto of the department of ed should be 'Caveat Emptor'...
22
How is this not a blatant conflict of interest?
26
Those poor kids...
They're going to be buried in debt for the rest of their lives, because of some unscrupulous sales pitch and a glossy brochure.
186
And if that doesn’t get them, healthcare costs will. Serfdom 2018!
1
Yet another attack on the less fortunate of our nation. DeVos has yachts worth close to $400,000,000. Maybe she and her family will help bail out those who will be drowning in debt at the hands of unscrupulous for-profits.
Even more laughable is that she and her Republican crime syndicate are now relying on data-based findings to support their decision. Since when?!?!
66
The revival of "trump university" coming soo!
95
@Robert FL and an opportunity for Halliburton to run the commissaries...or do they do that already?
5
Another strike from one of Trump's swamp creature. How does she sleep at night?
271
@BA:
I have a feeling that an Amway heiress long ago found a way to accommodate both sleeping and moral laxity. High thread and feather count as well as a servant to turn down the bed every night probably helps.
8
@BA probably most comfortably on the most luxurious down comforters in the world. That's what being top of a pyramid marketing business (Amway) gets you . . .
5
The scam these "schools " are pulling off is no different than Trump University!
451
They're all vultures.
Every single person in this "administration."
Vultures.
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@Valerie
Oh yes ! And let us not forget the defunct and fined Trump University.
Trump could not and cannot stand not having what he wants when he wants it.
Trump had serious behavioral problems when a child for which he received ineffective treatment from his parents and from the military school staff of the military school he was sent to.
With this new change in the law, I wonder if Trump will try to sue to get back the $25 million settlement he had to pay(?).
I would be able to have more empathy for Trump because of his lifelong to date dangerous and ultra-selfish behaviors if he demonstrated self awareness and remorse.
We must find a way of stopping Trump from damaging America and us Americans further.
Hopefully we can find ways to convince those with the power, who are not also anti-social, to help to find a way to convince Trump that being President is not what he is cut out for.
1
@Valerie Beg to disagree Valerie. Vulture (buzzards) are actually beautiful birds who have a serious job to do. And, they do it well.
Trump and his administration, without exception, are like the 'walking dead'. Maybe our lovely vultures will have a feast in Nov.
3
@Valerie. Please don't give vultures a bad rap, they do so much in cleaning up. For these people, I have no words to imagine how low their moral and ethical stands are.
1