Kaplan (Washington Post) Transforms Into Big Operator Of Trade Schools

Wall Street Journal ^ | 7 November 2003 | By DANIEL GOLDEN and MATTHEW ROSE

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BOCA RATON, Fla. -- In a call center here, 148 sales representatives work the phones, following their training manual's exhortation to "sell the dream." Their jobs and raises hinge on meeting quarterly sales goals. They adorn their cubicles with colored flags, denoting completed interviews with prospects and allowing supervisors to check progress at a glance.

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The Washington Post receives a great portion of its revenues from Kaplan of which over 80% come from the Federal Government. Further at least 20% of Kaplan's students don't finish. Finally, The Washington Post via Kaplan refuses to give information on the per centage graduating from their programs and so forth.

About 600 million plus of their budget is financed by Uncle Sam!

[TheMole]

Very interesting article. Definitely a few eyebrow-raisers in there, but a couple of points need to be made. First, there are thousands of public educational institutions that are 100% financed by Uncle Sam. Second, the dropout rate from universities is one of the great untold stories of education. At most four-year institutions, about half of the students who begin first-year classes never receive a degree. This percentage is higher at easy-admission state universities. For example, at Cal State-Northridge, only six percent of students receive a degree within seven years of registering for their first course. I do however agree with you that the Kaplan situation ought at least to be monitored closely.