This is a series of non-issues, or issues that can be dealt with by the states.
For example: there is a problem with schools getting aid pkgs for students who arent able to qualify or who havent the ability to complete/attend?- the article doesnt make clear-so instead of fixing the system that allows this aid to be obtained.....!!!!! Give us a break already.
1
A twofold measure which will dumb down America, and rip off the gullible, all in order to line the pockets of the ultra rich donors in the education biz, like Betsy DeVos. These greedy people will destroy this country.
8
Unfortunately Rep. Foxx doesn't seem to know that a " "data dashboard' that would provide students with information like average salaries and the debt levels of graduates from college programs" is already provided by the federal government. However, the data are incomplete, because they include only federal aid recipients. A more complete picture would include all graduates - but Rep. Foxx is opposed to a federal unit-level record system. Also -- average salaries of people who start, but don't finish programs (even ten years out) would be excellent data and would show pretty lousy results for the for-profit industry.
Thank you for such detailed reporting on an issue of such importance but one that is beneath the radar for many people.
6
And a quick look at Open Secrets.org tells us everything we need to know: Representative Foxx’s top campaign contributor is Full Sail, a for-profit university. Ugh.
14
This fact should be included in this story. It would help to put her and other representatives' statements in context.
3
Touro College is going to love and milk this change. Count on it!
2
Plan to rid the U.S. of its educated population:
1. Dumb down high schools and adopt a "no one fails" policy: DONE
2. Higher fewer tenure track professors, more itinerant low-wage non-contract professors: DONE
3. Pad administration pay well into six figures, hire more administrators than professors: DONE
4. Raise tuition to pay for quadrupled administrative positions and pay: DONE
5. Eliminate early pay-off or lowered interest rate programs for student loans, keeping most grads in debt for life and unable to buy homes (side benefit: real estate no longer a good investment; more lambs to the slaughter on Wall Street): DONE
6. Of the students left, eliminate those who will "hang around" and take extra classes as that eats into the funds for administrator fat cats: DONE
7. Of the students left after #6, eliminate all classes designed to make up for learning deficits created by "no fails" high schools; cut out all reading and writing classes for the under-served and unprepared: DONE
8. Funnel affluent white students into what's left of higher education: HAPPENING NOW
13
Universities and colleges have been stealing kids and their families money for years. Drop out rates over 60 percent. Un or underemployed rates skyrocketed. Enormous debt. Why pick on for profits? The entire system is broken. Kids go to school to get a better job, better pay, a better life but most graduate with only debt. Why? Because universities don’t truly prepare students for the workforce. Ask any employer or employee where hires learn to do their job. And the answer is on the job. With very few exceptions the gap between education and necessary employable skills to be productive is enormous. And I’m saying this with two masters degrees. The system in its entirety is failing our youth. No legislation will fix that. Education innovation needs to occur. I apologize for any spelling or grammatical errors. I’m typing this from my phone and can barely see this poorly designed user interface. Not a slight. But an opportunity for your organization to improve.
2
Of course! Trump University!
9
A soul-crushing existence trying to pay down a mountain of debt with a worthless degree that leads to no better paying job. Gee, thanks. Maybe Trump and co could open up a for-profit school and teach the poor how to become paper millionaires and billionaires so they too can no the freedom of walking away from debt and laughing all the way to the bank just like POTUS.
But seriously, the democrats really need to stop calling everything a "war." The hyperbole doesn't help make the point. The GOP is fulfilling their agenda, which they have been disturbingly clear about. This is politics at it's worse.
For our part, we (as in everyone who cares) must do more to educate our kids (and not just your own, but those you know and interact with) about the real world. My stepson is a junior and was under the impression that he would be fine with 200K in debt for a BS at his top choice university. Until me, my husband, his aunt, and his cousin who just started college talked at length about our experiences and those of our friends and colleagues on Thanksgiving. He may still decide he wants to risk deep debt, but he will do so with his eyes wide open.
5
Why are for-profit colleges a scam? Follow the money!
In 2010 Apollo Group, owners of University of Phoenix, spend $2,225 per student on marketing and advertising. In contrast, they spent only $892 on instruction.
In contract, Portland Community College, in Oregon spent $45,953 on instruction and $185 on advertising and marketing.
I will assert, without fear of contradiction, that any assertion from Representative Virginia Foxx (R- NC) should be deemed suspect pending further investigation.
Representative Foxx is contributing to an accelerating 21st century US Brain Drain that will see smart Americans leaving the country for better education - and not returning. It will be much the same as Austria and Germany in the 1930's, albeit due to GOP political policies rather than Antisemitism.
14
This is all part of the larger Republican scheme to dismantle government entirely. It's an idea hatched out of the morass of hate and racism residing in Steve Bannon's skull. Of course, that egg has been incubating in Republican minds for decades as they taught their masses to hate everything related to government and that anything government does is a challenge to their freedom. You know, freedom to pollute, freedom to scam, freedom to lie, freedom to steal, etc., etc. The thesis is exemplified by Reagan's quote about what you should fear the most and it was someone knocking on your door and saying, "I'm from the government and I'm here to help you." The propaganda worked even though trillions of letters have been effectively delivered, thousands of miles of highways constructed, and trillions of dollars of social security benefits delivered and untold amounts of pollutants kept out of our drinking water and air. That being said, with the current makeup of congress and the presidency, I do, indeed, hate government. At least I hate this government and all of it's republican members.
14
Let's just throw out the whole higher ed system, for it is probably fake, and just hand out diplomas for a dollar amount, say 50,000 for an undergrad degree, and 75 to 90 for a master's degree added on, and for the whopping doctorate, let's hit the 100,000 dollar mark. And, let's call it Trump University.
9
Is that the doctor you want? Maybe the lawyer? The teacher for your kids? Think about it.
1
Combine this with the "Tax Reform" bill's possible elimination of the tax deduction for student loan interest paid, and possible classification of tuition remission as taxable income, and the seeds of the destruction of American higher education will have been sown. Legitimate educational opportunities will become scarcer and more expensive, while there will be a huckster on every tv channel and all over the web promising a quick and easy path to a high-paid job. All you have to do is sign on this dotted line.... by the time you figure out the truth, it will be too late.
7
I agree with the concerns expressed in this piece about the potential damage to quality higher education of the proposed legislation. However, the opening paragraphs of the piece read more like an editorial than like reporting.
And I would also say that the various abuses of students cited in the story as applicable to the for-profit sector-and likely to be enhanced by this bad legislation--also apply to many non-profit "traditional" institutions of higher education. John Silber and other traditional-sector college presidents pioneered the purchase of earmarks through donations to members of the relevant House and Senate committees. And many colleges and universities are running the same kind of on-line course and degree program revenue generating boondoggles that Betsy DeVos and friends are getting rich from in the for-profit sector.
1
I hope that someday most people in this country will agree that profiting off of healthcare and education is ethically dubious.
15
The total destruction of the country is near so the rich can get richer. How long will it take to recover from Trump & the GOP? How can a bill be passed that guarantees it can not become law again? Is this a democracy or can the GOP legislate when its not in power? Endless absurdities.
6
Maybe this is supposed to be a payoff to Trump and lay the groundwork for a bigly revival for Trump U. I could see Trump in retirement (hopefully soon!) shilling for it saying Trump U has an ex-president's endorsement.
3
The United States has the number one college/university system on the planet. The US and the world have been the beneficiaries of the excellence of our higher education schools. Whey would Mr. Trump want to injure or destroy one of the gems of our country?
3
Next year's GOP campaign slogan:
Making "For Profit Education" an oxymoron again!
2
Some "for profit" education coming to a strip mall near you...
Mnuchin School of Economics
Pruitt University of Environmental Studies
Bannon College of Lenin Studies
McConnell Graduate School of Republican Policy
Kushner School of Mid-East / Indonesian Foreign Studies
Ivanka Graduate University of Nails / Hair / Wardrobe
7
"If you expect a nation to be ignorant and free , you expect what never was and can never be."
- Thomas Jefferson
Thus the Trump/Republican plan to foster ignorance.
12
"I love the uneducated!" Donald J. Trump
8
Correction: should be $5,953 not $45,953
and "contrast" not contract.
2
Let’s destroy the finest university system in the world. Great goal.
4
Some for-profit colleges do a better job of educating students than some public and non-profit colleges. Many for-profit schools have much higher employment rates for graduates than some public and non-profit schools. And don’t let the terms public and non-profit mislead you into thinking money isn’t be made at the students’ expense. Take a look at how much presidents, senior administrators and tenured faculty make at some public and non-profit schools. And then look at their six-month out job placement rate in comparison to tuition charged and graduates’ loan debts. Making for-profits the Big Bad is like blaming legalized marijuana for the opioid crisis.
2
If you are going to make comments about how much more successful for profits are in regards to educating students and in getting jobs for those students, then let's see the proof. Give me the numbers, and I don't mean "fake" numbers but reputable sources that can be checked. Go to gov sites and edu sites for your information if you can't find them.
3
You are oh so correct regarding some for-profits being better than some so-called non-profit schools. However, the current data indicate that a for-profit school (Ex., Trump University) is much more likely to be a scam than a non-profit. I am not sure how one would do this, but one really needs to figure out how to differentiate the lousy schools (that should be ineligible for federal aid) from the real schools.
1
Almost every corporate decision to locate someplace is guided by factors important to the corporation. At, or near, the top of the list is education/skills of local citizens. Corporations want educated employees. I continue to be confused by the lack of outrage of American corporations over the dismantling of educational quality in the United States.
4
Your comment regarding reduced educational quality may be true in some areas, but in terms of STEM (Science-technology-engineering-math), US colleges are outstanding - probably the best in the world based on the number of foreign students seeking admittance to US colleges in these fields. Most, but certainly not all, major corporations are based on advances in STEM so they are still very happy.
Agreed. But the UW System is declining under Gov. Walker and the Republican administration. Top researchers and scholars have accepted positions in other states(and taking their research dollars along), class sizes are larger, and moral has plummeted.
All over the US, including red state rural areas like mine, there are college towns, where most of the local homes and businesses have a connection with a college or university. Many of those schools are struggling today as a result of demographic trends and other factors (like cost) lowering enrollment. This bill and the tax bill will depress enrollment to such an extent that schools will go dark and those communities will founder. Will the residents find themselves stuck, like those in mill towns, unable to get out from under falling real estate prices? Foxx doesn't care. I am not sure what she cares about. But it's not students or America.
4
It seems that this bill has many terrible features related esp. to for-profit colleges (which shouldn’t ever qualify for federal money, ever). But it doesn’t do us any good to overhype the credit hour issue in the way the first part of the article does. No, rescinding a rule that was only introduced in 2011 will not change the way higher education operates. The credit hour will still be there, just like it was in 2010 (I would know, I taught at US universities from 2003 through 2015 - the 2011 act had virtually no impact on most higher education institutions except the production of additional paperwork).
How many of these republicans are willing to send their own kids to these for-profit colleges? I wish there was a way to tie congressional votes to such real world outcomes.
3
Higher education could use some disarray. It has morphed into an exorbitant fleecing of students, many of whom obtain useless and unemployable degrees while going into massive debt to do so. Meanwhile, professors crave tenure at all costs, and leave much of the actual teaching to low priced gad students while they go about publishing increasingly inane books or papers to maintain their prestige among their peers, and within the university system. It's time for a major shake up, and for universities to get back to common sense and practical education and affordable student tuition.
The poor are always the ones who get targeted by the boiler room diploma mills where the name of the game is to just sign a government loan doc that unlocks $20-30-40k into the coffers of the company. Quality of education is tertiary.
I'm fine with for profits but because of the incentives they have to be regulated. We've already learned the lesson.
So, repeal and replace with no actual replacement devised yet. Standard MO for New Sheriff and his 'Education' Deputy. Fast on the draw, but no bullet points.
4
As a professor, it has been clear for decades that the GOP is all about profit first and education last. Yet, our nation's corporations depend on an educated workforce. On the other hand, the GOP relies on uneducated voters. The disdain republicans have for higher education is palpable. So, it's no surprise that they love for-profit education which is pretty crappy in terms of education but great in terms of profit and strongly against not-for-profit education which actually educates people but without the big profits.
2
Education is a dangerous thing...especially to those who don't have much of it. In the rural Midwest, those few of us who managed to escape to college, were labeled as having "gone away to school" and forever treated as suspects involved in a plot to undermine common sense and gut reasoning. My high school friends, using their hands, can build a tractor from scratch...I, using my brain, can identify one when I see it. Republicans seem to better understand the "danger" posed by education much better than Democrats. Burning of the books? Don't say never. College brings books (many without pictures), and book learning can cause, get thee away Satan, thinking. Exposure to commie, pinko, liberal, pointy headed professors can mess with a kid's mind. Critical thinking? Galileo! Not for nothing, Trump loves the uneducated while congress is working overtime to stamp it out. Maybe I'm imagining this, but when a group of my Republican "friends" walk into a room, the IQ dips precipitously and oxygen masks drop from the ceiling. Charlie, read anything lately? Yeah, them pictures in that there Field and Stream at Doc's office was shore purdy...hand me that there 3/8 inch socket. We're in trouble and you definitely don't need a degree to see it. I really want to believe that we can fix this. But understand, I went way to school.
2
Higher education in the US is a broken system and the ways that quality are measured are at the core of the problem. The idea that it takes 120 hours to master anything and everything is absurd. It was a necessary and useful construct when the means for flexibility were not available and when the level of education of the populace was low. None of this is true any more. People come to higher education with a huge range of educational achievement and with educational goals requiring a huge range of marginal educational demand. The main thing blocking the ability of the industry to offer education as it is needed is the current regulation. A complete redesign is needed.
The credit hour controversy aside, this is a direct gift to Betsy DeVos and her for-profit empire. The corruption in Washington continues as Swamp Trump widens.
4
The cost structure of higher education in this country is arguably in greater need of fixing than that of health care. While the latter had risen some 600% in the 30 years before the ACA, college costs rose 12-fold in the same period.
The system is out of control, and we need to hit the brakes. Perhaps we could consider a single-payer system for higher education, or another insurance-like structure to keep the institutions honest. If it's right for healthcare, why not here?
We'll always have people who opt to pay high-cost education "providers," but with no reimbursement (read scholarship, subsidized loans, etc.) beyond "reasonable and customary" costs. Students in lower-cost state schools, on the other hand, could receive full tuition.
And, as in healthcare, oversight to minimize the charlatans, the quacks of education.
1
In Republican America, the citizenry are merely cogs in someone's value stream and cashflow. As such, all aspects of life are monitized wherein someone has to be making a buck off of the citizenry's mere existence and in this case, higher education. Why would Republicans tolerate state institutions of higher learning when those institutions represent state run competition and are stealing money from someone's right to make a profit. The issue is not educating, but making money by providing the least services in turn for the most profit.
In ecological terms, in transfer of energy and resources, there are the primary producers i.e., vegetation, followed by the grazers, followed by predators. In Republican America the majority of us are no more than leaves of grass.
2
"Ms. Laitinen is among those who believe that the credit hour has become a faulty proxy for what a student knows, when really it only measures how much time they spent in a seat."
This is faulty logic. The credit doesn't occur i na vacuum, it is only issued pending the instructor's determination that the student has successfully absorbed he subject matter.
1
A credit hour is not a credit hour: Orwell’s Big Brother couldn’t have said it better.
The current powers don’t want a populace that can think for itself. Primary and secondary ed have already been defused. Defusing higher education is a finishing flourish.
1
It would have been useful to the readers of the article to have reported upon (or given a link to) the campaign contributions received by the members of
the house committee on education and workforce. Inquiring minds are
curious to learn how much of this legislative effort is fueled by for profit shysters and hucksters, fellow travelers of those behind operations at trump u., the existence of which and abuses suffered by which
are at the core of the reforms that foxx and friends are so intent at eliminating.
It is unfortunate that such overturners are not forced to
respond to the challenge how they would protect the young and gullible
from the machinations of for profiteers, or even if they feel the
need to do so. In addition, why do they feel the need to protect
schemers who make their money by what amounts to the theft of federal
money.
Conventional wisdom states that Trump wants to erase Obamas legacy. That may be a part of it, but I attribute many of his actions to a different motive. That is to simply ask business people 'what do you want', and give it to them, either regardless of the consequences or out of ignorance of the consequences. He knows that he will be judged in large part by 'economic performance' and he seems to think the best way to achieve short term growth is to ignore long term consequences, and even short term costs, and just give them whatever they want. It seems to provide the rational for many of his actions.
NYT writes: Still, several ..groups opposed the (Obama) rules (for credit hours.. "Several" is more than misleading. Here is a partial list of signers
ACPA - College Student Educators International
Amer. Assoc. of Colleges for Teacher Education
Amer. Assoc of State Colleges and Universities
Amer. Assoc of University Professors
Amer. Council on Education
Amer.Dental Education Association
Amer. Indian Higher Education
Amer. Psychological Association
APPA, “Leadership in Educational Facilities”
Appalachian College Association
Assoc. of Amer. Universities
Assoc. of Chiropractic Colleges
Assoc. of Community College Trustees
Assoc. of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges
Assoc. of Independent Colleges of Art & Design
Assoc. of Jesuit Colleges and Universities
Assoc. of Public and Land-grant Universities
Council for Christian Colleges & Universities
Council for Higher Education Accreditation
Council of Graduate Schools
Council of Independent Colleges
EDUCAUSE
Hispanic Assoc. of Colleges and Universities
International Assoc. of Baptist Colleges and Universities
NASPA - Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education
National Assoc. of Independent Colleges and Universities
National Assoc. of Student Financial Aid Administrators
National Collegiate Athletic Assoc.
The New American Colleges & Universities
UNCF
Work Colleges Consortium
Women’s College Coalition
Opposition to the Obama rule included American Indian, Hispanics and the Women College Coalition.
7
Several of the organizations you've listed are bogus organizations that sprung up to "accredit" bogus institutions created when the Bush administration first opened the floodgates to "for profit" educational establishments. These institutions could not achieve accreditation from log-exstablished, reputable regional accreditation agencies like WASC, so the Bush administration approved much less "rigorous" accrediting agencies in order to give some of these fly-by-night institutions the ability to get federal funds for student loans. The Republican war on higher education has been going on since the 60's.
1
That's an interesting list. Where did you get it from? When I start to look at any one of those listed groups, it is very difficult to get their position on this issue. I am skeptical.
1
From the Military Times....Dozens of military and veteran service organizations are pushing back against the Department of Education’s decision earlier this year to suspend enforcement of Obama-era rules aimed largely at for-profit colleges and universities.
Leaders of 36 organizations, most military-oriented, wrote in a letter to the Education Department Wednesday that they “strongly oppose” efforts to undermine policies that protect both students and taxpayers. Service members, veterans and their families are particularly vulnerable to “unscrupulous colleges,” they said.
Regulations that clarified how students duped by schools could seek loan forgiveness and evaluated whether most programs at for-profit institutions and other non-degree programs led to gainful employment for students were set to take full effect July 1. But Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced in June she was postponing the implementation of these regulations — seen by many as a means of holding for-profit institutions more accountable — while the Department reevaluated whether the regulations actually work for students.
1
The "hottest" changes for Higher Education, are currently being planned outside of, and away from The White House, Congress and Senate. That is a problem for The White House, thus U.S.A. in general, since it will not be the Leader or a Leader of change. Power is diminished. Profits from a Leadership Position will not be received. Education is a necessity. People need Education. People do not need Golf Courses, Trump Casinos, Trump Clothing, Trump Tower.
4
As in every arena, Republicans here seek unfettered capitalism, dishonestly labelled 'innovation', absolute reliance on profit making institutions to police themselves with no potential for oversight of any kind, and seeks to smash the foundations of, in this case, education.
Take the traditional, reflexive corporate complaint about every government regulation ever promulgated "they are burdensome and intrusive".
As a college graduate, I can translate for you, "We don't do much about the quality of our teaching and we certainly can't invest in filling out your ridiculous forms, a process which cuts into the profits which are the only reason we exist. And, no, you can't see what we teach, how we teach, or even, really, if we teach. Because we're business and you're not."
On the other hand, the more legitimate among these institutions move rapidly down the well worn path to lower status and income followed recently by doctors: in an effort to wrest more money from the system, and do it as easily as possible, they sacrificed professional requirements for practice, rolled back rules about marketing and accepting favors from people trying to sell them stuff, and became just another group of employees in health mega-corporations.
Still, the take-home here is that the foolish DeVos, the bloviating and doctrinaire Foxx, and their hideous boss seek to undermine support for education and to make a profit from what little remains.
We just sit and watch...
53
I don't believe Trump cares about education or understands the details of any of the various Departments under his watch. He's being advised by greedy folks looking after their own self interests. All he's interested in is "did Obama implement it?".
18
What do you expect from someone who functions at the level of a 6 year old?
Is there no guard rail that Betsy DeVos won't drive through?
It is really shameful the way the self-dealers are in charge
November 2018 & 2020 cannot arrive quickly enough for me
Vote in every election. There really is a difference between those that self deal and create laws for their personal advantage and those that truly want what is best for the future of our country.
28
The folks like Pruitt, Zinke, Mulvaney and DeVos - along with Trump - does more harm to America, her citizens and her interests than the worst terrorist groups.
Amazing what we have become - when the radical terrorists aligned against American interests just have to sit back and watch.
4
Keep them dumb and they will follow, the Republican mantra.
3
See the consequences of trying hard to elect an unelectable candidate (Mrs. Clinton) last election. Democratic Party is busy with social issues while large part of the country on their welfare. Dem party made sure Joe Biden won't run and Bernie will lose. Net result? We have someone else at the chair and undoing all the good things that has President Obama's name. Agreed some bad ones were removed too, but removing good things has dominated. Sad.
1
The far-right in this country has long feared intellectual achievement outside of engineering. As a whole, its proponents think that a university education is no more than giving the same unearned credential as the Oz's Scarecrow. Crackerbarrel wisdom is all the little people need. And if someone without qualifications can provide the little people (as Leona Helmsley called them) even worthless tech ed at a tidy profit, well, all the better. Why should the government stand in the way?
What does kleptocracy look like? This is what kleptocracy looks like.
7
These changes will make it easier for the University of North Carolina to keep its athletes eligible to play.
3
An uneducated electorate is a manipulable electorate. The broadside against education that began with Betsy is cynical and disgusting.
9
Those ill conceived mandates were designed the prevent the abuses private universities were found guilty of committing. Bogus programs and degree and loans the crush people and unlike a failed Casino cannot be adjudicated va bankruptcy. Once again we see the GOP serves the shysters, not the working people of the US. Under the GOP "Buyer Beware" has replaced "Crooks be Warned" in the American Market Place.
3
Republicans look to “experts” in education like Betsy DeVos and Virginia Foxx for advice. Advice, that is, on how best to deceive and defraud poorer students, give them a worthless degree, saddle them with debt, while at the same time ensuring the profitability and the stock prices of for-profit colleges.
9
But where Republicans see deregulation, others see potential chaos.
I will never understand this love affair with deregulation in every facet of life. What is wrong with having standards, particularly when it comes to education (not to mention safety, food, pharmaceuticals, etc.)?
I just hope companies that do the hiring will be smart enough to understand the difference between a degree from a reputable institution and one of these fake colleges.
15
If Obama enacted them, they have to be bad. In all, the Feds should have absolutely no role in education, period. With no constitutional authority whatsoever, they have forced themselves in the education system all up and down the line. The result, less educated students, insanely higher education costs and inflated edcuational bureaucracies.
1
At this moment the Feds are pushing to force states and school districts to allow vouchers for use in private, religious schools (said vouchers to be financed by taxpayers). Local taxpayers and school districts will have no say in this matter. Surely this smacks of federal overreach -- right?
DeVos family is invested in for profit schools and like other Trump appointees is dedicated to dismantle the agency she heads. Trump university a scam school that defrauded folks and Trump paid 25 million$ to settle. Rip off schools will provide useless degrees and operate as scams enriching the new breed of oligarchs created by the Trump GOP regime . Passing laws that benefit a small group of GOP billionaires will continue the highest income inequality the USA has in the world . Looking out for the forgotten man is a scam by a con man huckster aided by a pack of greedy republicans anxious to please their paymasters and secure million $ jobs on K street when the voters dump them as reality sets in.
9
After thousands of students were duped by for-profit schools that made promises that they had no way to deliver on and we're back to this again!
How much longer before we hit bottom?
19
Trump and his cronies know no such thing as bottoming out--they just keep digging deeper and deeper.
Why? Because he and his cronies still believe that running a country is like running a company. Companies don't have legislatures, and certainly no judiciary, just the executive branch which is all powerful.
This is the most incompetent Republican Administration and Congress in our nation's history. Unreal.
14
We need this sort of thing, along with analysis of the appalling tax scam at the top of the page, and whatever nonsense scandals trumpco caused that day should be at the bottom.
Congress is looking at every area of our national life and working tirelessly to wreck it.
11
Another tragic situation to add to the long and growing list of "unintended consequences" of not voting for Hilary Clinton! If we have any hope of preventing further damage and restoring some semblance of democracy and decency to our country, every eligible voter MUST elect reasonable, rationale, and empathetic (i.e., non-Republican) representatives to every local, state, or national seat to which they aspire. I hope it goes without saying that these should include as many women as we can muster to run! This truly is our responsibility as sane and patriotic Americans, and if we shirk it, we have only ourselves to blame - again!
11
These are not the “unintended consequences” of not having voted for Hillary Clinton! This is exactly what was to be expected and anticipated. Sorry, but if you did not vote for Clinton, you’re accountable for this. The impact of GOP gerrymandering has been clearly evident for years and their control of multiple institutions both nationally and at state level has contributed to the nation’s conservative and fundamentalist turn. So, don‘t be shocked (shocked!) at the turn of events or the extent of the damage.
No, this was totally previsible and preventable.
It's too bad really. A lot of people will be conned by the worthless for-profit places like Trump U., and will pay thousands for a degree that is only useful as toilet paper. Just like Trump U., a big part of the plan will be teaching students on day one how to take out enough credit cards to charge all their tuition. So a lot of young people, taken in by these frauds, will end up in debt, with no useful education, and no chance of getting the kind of job they'd need to pay off their debt.
This is exactly what I'd expect from Trump too, benefiting the rich, lying con-men like himself, and battering the lower middle class. Well America, you voted for self-destruction, this was to be expected.
12
Another law designed to make Trump richer.
Trump stood on a debate stage and bragged about bribing all of the other Republicans on the stage.
The Trump presidency is just about cutting out the middle man so he can write laws benefiting himself directly.
If he gets his way, he will rip up the constitution and make himself God-Emperor for life, so he can rule by imperial edict. I've never said anything like this about an American politician before, but ignoring all the signs is just willful blindness.
The only thing that matters to Trump is Trump.
When he throws you under the bus, you will understand.
5
Take what you can and give nothing back.
-Pirate / GOP 2018 saying
16
No doubt, today's Republicans hate knowledge. They minimally understand that quality education is dangerous for fake news and predatory for profit "higher education". Their brand of democracy thrives on the ignorance of the population, which can be fed lies, superstitions and fake reality without discussion. It is absurd that people like Trump's Education Secretary should have anything to do with education, let alone design a system of higher education. It would be a joke were not for the fact that it can be tragic for the nation and its future.
18
So I guess Lizzie Warren making $300,000 for teaching one course is okay because she’s a Democrat.
Why does the GOP make it so hard for us to educate our country. They cut federal research funding all the time and yet they give a blank check to the military. Now they tax our higher ed institutions and students. Students come from around the world to attend them. The return on investment is priceless. This GOP jeopardizes everything that make us a free and great society.
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If you look at poll data, the Republicans' strongest support comes from the people with the least education. Education is a gateway drug that leads to becoming a Democrat.
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How have you decided the return on investment is priceless?
They make it difficult to educate oneself because an educated voter, one who thinks instead of pines for a non-existent past, wouldn't vote Republican. Ever.
I am a retired Professor Emerita who taught at three public universities. At my last university, nearly 90% of our adult students were transferring with an average of 4 transcripts from other schools. These students represent a HUGE unmet need among the 58% of US Americans with "some college" (only 26% of US Americans have completed undergraduate degrees).
Unfortunately, this new breed of for-profit schools is not meeting that need because they aren't in the business of education. They are in the business of making money. Worse, public schools cannot compete with their massive TV, radio and web advertising dollars spent on making promises of employment forever more. And, that's the big lie because in our global 21st century economy, no one can reliably predict where jobs will be 10, 20, and 30 years from now.
The best undergraduate education helps student learn more about themselves, their world, and their place in it. With that type of wisdom, students have the confidence they'll need to change professions multiple times in their lifetimes.
I used to teach a class whose framing question was "What do you think it means to be an educated person?" That HUGE question led to many significant others, and the outcome of the course was that each student had a deeper sense of self-awareness, of purpose, of excitement, and of vision about their education. They also stayed in school and finished undergraduate degrees in higher numbers than any other program at our school!
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Just another tragic situation on the long, long list of the "unintended consequences" of not voting for Hilary Clinton! If we are ever going to prevent further damage, every eligible voter in this country MUST vote to put a reasonable, rationale, and empathetic (i.e., non-Republican) representative in every seat for which they are running - at the local, state, and national level! It truly is our last best hope for restoring democracy and decency to this country.
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I'm sorry but if people are stupid enough to pay money to get one of these worthless "Internet degrees" then let them do it. You cannot legislate common sense. These companies should all go under but because no one wants to pay for their worthless product.
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What did we expect from the con-man who bought us Trump university. It's unbelievable how far we've fallen in our standards.
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It's all part of the dumbing down of America. How else can the GOP find anyone stupid enough to vote against their own interests? By taxing student loan interest and tuitition waivers for graduate degrees, by turning colleges into bible study groups and, perhaps, by reopening Trump University. According to the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), we rank 38th out of 71 countries in math and 24th in science. Betsy DeVos was chosen Education Secretary to worsen those scores.
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This entire penchant Trump has in his "efforts to roll back the Obama legacy" is a mirror image of a stalker's mentality. That Trump fixates on Obama to such a degree is not normal. Not normal at all.
We know The Donald's racist past when it comes to renting practices, or blind accusations of the Central Park Five that he refused to let go despite them being officially exonerated by DNA evidence, his labeling Mexicans as rapists, and his years long insistence that President Obama was born in Kenya and thus was not a legitimate president of the United States.
But this level of attempting to destroy any and all of the Obama legacy is something new, and dangerous. What sparked Trump to go off in such a single purposed manner? Was it the roasting Donald received at the 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner? Where Trump was the butt of jokes by President Obama and “Saturday Night Live” comedian Seth Meyers?
It was reported at the time (by NYT) that "Trump was so humiliated by the experience, they say, that it triggered some deep, previously hidden yearning for revenge. “That evening of public abasement, rather than sending Mr. Trump away, accelerated his ferocious efforts to gain stature in the political world”.
A thin skinned racist being being called out in public by his ultimate nemesis - a successful, articulate, Black man who he (Trump) had been sticking it to for years was dressing him down at a dinner among peers. That hatred has to run deep in Donald J. Trump.
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Systematically, this administration is destroying every right, every hope, every aspiration for all ages, all socio-economic groups except for the rich, all ethnicities, the brown and black skinned, the LGBT and non-Christian, ad infinitum.
But what it is doing to our future, our kids, is beyond the pale. Health care and education are not entitlements. They are necessities for a nation to excel. It is vital to a nation in the 21st Century to have healthy, educated leaders and parents and entrepreneurs and doctors. techies, and, yes, even our skilled workers in the trades. They all require affordable access to our schools, universities, colleges.
Is anyone among us strong enough to stand up to this unconscionable group, starting in the Oval Office, to the sycophants in the Cabinet, to the greedy and soulless congressional Republicans? This has got to stop, not only for us adults but also, and perhaps most importantly, for our children, our future.
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Trump and DeVos have absolutely NO motivation to limit or dismantle for-profit schools of any grade level. They both have made too much MONEY from them.
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It is not in the interest of Republican politicians to advance a well-educated country. Ignorance keeps them in office.
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C'mon, folks is this any surprise, really?
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The GOP plan is to disrupt, if not destroy higher education. This has been a long term goal since the forties when the GI Bill gave tens of millions of what Republicans view as "those other people" access to higher education. The expansion of educational opportunities in the sixties only fueled Republican desires to destroy these opportunities. Republicans want a tiny elite of rich people to be educated and control society, while most everyone else can be "trained" in vocational education, for profit diploma mills. The ignorant, vile, and execrable De Vos is a perfect match for Trump in trying to make all of this happen.
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2 words: Trump University.
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With each new change or disgusting, poorly written bill, Americans are smacked in the face with the reality that money, and only money, is the driving force of the antiquated, abysmal GOP. The almighty pursuit of a buck, whether procured through legal means, or at the expense of others, like the working poor, is the only thing that legitimizes this horrifically inept political party.
The day has come for Americans to reclaim their country and protect our people and values from those whose only purpose is self-enrichment at the expense of others.
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This "commodification" of public education in favor of private and for-profit schooling dedicated not to well-rounded education for the sake of citizenship and individual fulfillment, but to little more than job training for corporations' profiteering and for the inculcation of religious values is the most "un-American" abandonment of tradition in country that one can imagine. Please, please fellow Americans, work (and vote) to get Trump and the GOP out of complete control of this nation as soon as possible!
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A highly educated populace is the last thing Republicans ever want to see in the US, because they would not be able to so easily pull the wool over its eyes, as they obviously did over the past few years. I mean, working class Americans voting Republican is almost akin to African Americans voting for a party of the Clan, or Jewish Americans voting for neo-Nazis. As far as disrupting our higher education system, consider the Republican political successes that have allowed a nearly total takeover of our government. This is a perfect example of the result of a caustic ignorance that stems from an utter lack of education on the part of tens of millions of working class American voters who actually believe they are racially superior, and that Republicans care about their jobs and families.
Ignorance is the nourishment that sustains the Republican party, so it should come as no surprise that the party is doing what is can to water education down, and keep the populace divided along racial, religious, and class lines. Remember the old commercial slogan from the late ’70’s: “an educated consumer is our best customer”? For Republicans it would read something like: “an uneducated, completely ignorant, racist, pseudo-Christian, working class American is our best voter, because they're dumb enough to actually believe we are concerned about their prosperity, or for that matter, America's”.
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It seems everything that was really good about this country, good for all its citizens, good for the planet and its inhabits, is being destroyed at lightening speed by this horror that's taken over every branch of government. The damage being done, we see and feel it every day is incalculable. Mnuchin and his heist of the treasury will lead to another financial crisis that will likely make the last one look average in comparison.
If Moore can be defeated today, it may be the emergency brake that puts a stop to the pillaging until we can turn them out next yr. Assuming that there's anything left to pillage by then.
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"I love the uneducated". Of course. They are much easier to control.
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I am curious to know who are the big donors to Virgina Foxx’s campaign. Did Trump *University* ever support her?
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Let's call it the "TRUMP U!" bill. You can use it as a noun and a verb. Very educational.
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Will the disastrous Republican/Trump administration ever end??? Our higher education system is the envy of the world. This seems to be enough to make it a target for destruction according to the current powers. As a retired find their strengths and ascend to the middle class, this move makes me cry. The effort should be to EASE the financial stress of these students. Instead, they will be fed to the rapacious hucksters that these politicians represent.
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This article speaks to a basic problem with the GOP's ideology of less government involvement. "Universities" inflating credit hours in an overtly deceptive manner shows just how willing many institutions (not just educational) are to bend rules to the point they can completely erode the underpinnings of society. It's an unfortunate reality that there are many who deceive because they stand to gain from dubious practices. Of course, the GOP themselves are leading examples.
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I don't get the allure of for-profit colleges. Their degrees are worthless, and plenty of real universities have online programs. Community colleges are also options. Just stay away.
And if you haven't already, get your money out of the big banks and into a credit union. Fight back as a consumer as these industries try to rewrite the rules for themselves.
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They hire cracker-jack sales teams who are very good at luring in unsuspecting potential students. The students are often first in their families to be college-bound, so they don't have anyone to warn them. The only thing these for-profits teach their "students" is how to take out a taxpayer-backed loan--the sales team is super good at that--and then they basically sit back and collect "tuition" until the student drops out.
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I thought Republicans hated Higher Education, outside of Liberty University of course
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No, they love MBA programs, mostly controlled by billionaire donors to universities, that preach greed over any other value or principle.
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These are for-profit diploma mills, not higher education. They're a rip-off for the unwary, they don't educate anyone in anything useful, and people graduate with nothing but staggering debt. So Republicans are fine with all that, they'd feel very different if these places educated anyone or let them move out of their assigned caste.
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" We don't need no stinkin' safeguards ". That's right, the GOP wants the field clear for Predators. You're on your own. Bigly.
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Are they laying the groundwork for Trump University to reopen?
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Besides Zinke, DeVos is the most dangerous person in this country.
A billionaire whose only objective is to turn the nation’s system of public education, at all levels, into nothing more than bible study groups.
In a word, frightening.
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Pruitt is more dangerous than both of them, though they're all equally evil and corrupt
"But in its systematic effort to erase President Barack Obama’s fingerprints from ..."
That's the whole point. It's the white supremacist viewpoint. By erasing everything that Obama accomplished, if a black were to run for president in the future, they could point out that we had a black president once, and he accomplished nothing that lasted.
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"nation’s system of higher education"
That is a myth created to justify central control. There are State systems, but the Federal "system", like so many other of the fake systems at the Federal level, is founded only on the giving or withholding of money. And what do we have for this "system"? Floods of money putting up the price of education, fueling a building boom that will break some universities when they run out of people to scam, and the devaluation of something that used to be valuable precisely because it took dedication and intelligence to achieve.
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Whether institutions are state run or private, federal money is involved.
The attempt by the right wing in this country to privatize education is the next nail in the coffin for American democracy. Free, public education is the second cornerstone of democracy after a free press. Republicans continue their assault on our freedoms.
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Well it cannot be free if government controls it. 'Free' to me means devoid of government control. To you free means getting enriched on other people's work
I suppose you went through 12 years of private schools. If not, maybe you should start paying the rest of us back for your "free" education.
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Great. Let’s keep burdening our young people with enormous tuition debt to obtain worthless degrees that do not advance their careers or increase their wages. And let’s keep squandering our tax dollars to fund GI bill and Pell grants for mail order degrees.
Way to make America great again!
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Then after receiving said degrees having to compete against the low wage foreign H-1B workers for a job. Useless, overpriced pieces of paper.
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No that’s “Make America Grate Again.” — Trump can’t spell.
Aside from self-agrandisement and -enrichment, trump*s only other motivation is to tear down anything associated with Obama. We Circle The Drain
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Since President Reagan's administration, the political right has sought to tear down the laws, mores and gains attributable to the political left... when the times comes (and it will come) the Dems and the left it will need to do the same.
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