Posted on 10/06/2014 7:21:22 AM PDT by Academiadotorg
The U.S. Department of Education’s latest rule, the “gainful employment” or GE rule, mandates that for-profit colleges cannot saddle students with debt at an arbitrary rate. However, it affects only for-profit colleges such as Kaplan, DeVry and University of Phoenix, representatives of Kaplan claimed during a Washington, D.C. briefing recently.
At the meeting organized by the Independent Women’s Forum, former Dallas mayor Thomas Leppert, now the CEO of Kaplan, explained how the rule itself is not fair to for-profit colleges. “A regulation should apply to any institution,” said Leppert, who noted “it only applies and targets the for-profit sector.” He also pointed out that U.S. courts threw out the rule in 2011.
The rule will disband any college program offered by for-profit institutions if the debt-to-student ratio is above 8%. Typically, there is a public comment period on proposed federal regulations such as this one from the Department of Education. Nevertheless, with this proposal, when more than one student from a university or institution writes a comment to the department, the D.O.E. now counts all comments from that university as one single comment. Kaplan estimated the rule generated about 57,000 reactions this year supporting the for-profits’ position, which they said was astonishingly high and unexpected.
A public four-year college, on average, has a 12% debt-to-student ratio, with private non-profits at 13% and for-profits 16%. And, if one applies the rule to the University of Texas, 54% of classes would fail the standard, including English, geography, Russian studies, public health education and women’s studies courses.
On average, enrolling at for-profits costs $9,162 in tuition, and for public institutions $5,161 per semester. But, the advantage for taxpayers is that for-profit students, on average, receive only $2,405 from taxpayers compared to $15,540 in loans for students at public universities.
Delayed enrollment students make up 95% of Kaplan’s student body, compared to 20% for the rest of U.S. colleges, both public and private non-profit. Eighty-five percent of Kaplan students are 25 years or older, compared to 21% for other colleges, and 39% of Kaplan students are single parents compared to just 8% for other colleges. Sixty-three percent of Kaplan students are Pell grant-eligible versus 36% for non-profit or public colleges, and 83% of Kaplan students are financially independent. Only 26% of all college students (at non-profit, state or for-profit colleges) are financially independent. At Kaplan, 60% of students have dependents (i.e. children) compared to 17% for non-Kaplan institutions.
Thirty-one percent of black graduates have graduated from career colleges such as Kaplan, along with 28% of Hispanic graduates. Thus, the implementation of the rule will hurt minorities and their chances to achieve higher education.
The rule will not help build a better American society, and Leppert admonished that “Today we’re 12th and are not moving” in rankings in higher education. For additional information on what the gainful employment rule means and its possible consequences, check out the Independent Womens’ Forum policy paper.
Kaplan University is cheap compared to most universities out there. What is the big deal?
Kaplan is part of the Washington Post. As far as I am concerned, they can eat it.
Kaplan is owned by the Washington Post, the Obama loving newspaper.
BTTT
When the government is selecting the winners and losers with targeted regulations, the losers include us.
Kaplan is owned by Graham Holdings Company.
http://www.kaplanuniversity.edu/about/about-kaplan-university.aspx
Graham does not own the Washington Post.
http://www.ghco.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=62487&p=irol-businessnewspapers
crap, I should have kept looking before posting...
Y’all were right, I am wrong.
Washington Post Co. renamed Graham Holdings Company to mark sale of newspaper
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/washington-post-co-renamed-graham-holdings-company-to-mark-sale-of-newspaper/2013/11/18/57fbc7fe-5060-11e3-9e2c-e1d01116fd98_story.html
Intesting the Wash Post is not listed under their newspapers.
Seems a bit confusing:
http://m.chronicle.com/article/Kaplan-Will-Dominate-New/140887/
Part of the publicly traded company, but not the paper? Hmm.
These stupid “schools” teach garbage for profit. They don’t even teach critical thinking anymore.
Yep, I’m confused.
It’s not clear how the newspaper’s split from the rest of the company will affect the performance of those other businesses, which include cable and network television stations.
Often true, but so many of those for-profit "universities" are just diploma mills. A good test would be to call up your state university, and ask them if they accept Kaplan University credits. I'll bet they don't.
Another thing to consider, in general. When a for-profit tells you that they are "accredited", ask: accredited by whom?
I recall reading about once such institution that had accreditation...awarded to it by it's own in-house accreditation agency. Slick, eh?
I think the way it works is Bezos “owns” the Post, but Graham owns Bezos. Bezos was a “white knight” who basically is finding new ways to advertise Amazon and wanted more of a Washington presence to grab more fed. agency funds.
Last time, I promise.
It looks like they are really separate.
Washington Post enjoys editorial resurgence under Jeff Bezos
http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2014/oct/06/washington-post-us-press-publishing
6 October 2014
Jeff Bezos is not listed as a major holder of Grahm Holdings.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/mh?s=GHC+Major+Holders
I’ve taken classes from Kaplan online for technical training. I don’t know about transferring credits, but the technical teaching in preparation for the Professional Engineering Exam last decade was the real deal.
My BS in IT was from Kaplan.
that is a delicious irony
Government schools full of Democrat hirelings always cost more to operate than free market schools. The higher costs are quietly offloaded onto the taxpayers. But with about 75% of the population opting for socialist indoctrination, few students actually come out ahead. They will pay much higher taxes their whole life.
One, in my neck of the woods, we have a Kaplan medical assisting training school. It offers the exact same education as the local community college, but at three times the cost. People pick Kaplan because they advertise so much. I know, it's a case of buyer beware, but still...
Two, about ten years ago our school district bought an expensive Kaplan science curriculum program. It was complete garbage. We discarded it in less than a year. I know, another case of buyer beware...
Does that mean that white writers for the Post are Graham crackers?
I think you are right. They are separate since the sale of the paper.
Graham Holdings has since started a scholarship for ILLEGAL ALIENS.
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