Sen. Harkin to hold hearings on federal funds to for-profit colleges

Source: Washington Post

Sen. Tom Harkin, chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said he plans to hold a series of hearings to examine the surge in federally funded grants and loans flowing to for-profit colleges in the United States.

The committee will probe the "rapid growth of federal investment" in the sector and "the corresponding opportunities and risks for students and taxpayers," Harkin, an Iowa Democrat, said in an announcement Thursday on his Web site.

Apollo Group Inc.'s University of Phoenix, ITT Educational Services Inc., Career Education Corp. and other for-profit educators are under increasing federal scrutiny over their recruitment practices and level of student loan defaults. President Obama's administration is proposing tougher regulation of the companies because of concern that recruiters are signing up unqualified students and leaving them with loans they may be unable to repay. For-profit colleges receive more than $20 billion a year in federal student grants and loans, Harkin said in his statement. The hearings are scheduled to begin June 24.

"We need to ensure for-profit colleges are working well to meet the needs of students and not just shareholders," Harkin said in the statement. "We owe it to students and taxpayers to make sure these dollars are being well-spent."


Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/10/AR2010061005249.html

And even though I am now working in my field of study, I completely agree with your assessment. I will also be paying off student loans until I'm 60.

Screws the students who are used as pawns and screws the taxpayer. Time to end the scam.

These for-profit schools are a scam, most especially the "career" colleges.

It's not exclusive to colleges. Good on Harkin.

disability. They knew she would not be able to handle the course she wanted to take but did not suggest another. They took the money and waited for her to drop out.

This has been going on for years. In the 70s colleges near reservations used to enroll Native Americans and do this with BIA scholarship money. I do not know if that is still happening or not but it would not surprise me.

at the elementary and high school levels.

business, er, I mean, this ministry.

Yeah, ministry. That's the ticket.