Lawmakers OK plan to finish teaching 150 Portland nursing students

[TexasTowelie]

The emergency funding board of the Oregon Legislature unanimously approved the full $1.6 million Portland Community College says it needs to get about 150 former ITT Technical Institute nursing students to graduation.

ITT Tech closed abruptly Sept. 6 in response to stricter regulations from the U.S. Department of Education. That left about 500 of the private school's students without a path to completing their degrees. The nursing school was particularly hard hit because nursing programs around the country are packed full.

The funding means students with fewer than five terms left to graduate will be able to enroll as PCC students in January. The program will not accept new students and will close after the last of them graduate in a little more than a year.

Ben Cannon, head of the state's Higher Education Coordinating Commission, praised the lawmakers in a statement.

"Pending PCC's final determination, within just a few months members of the first cohort will complete their degrees and begin their nursing careers, contributing to Oregon's economy and helping to meet critical workforce needs," Cannon said. "This modest public investment will immediately and significantly change the trajectories of their lives."

Read more: http://portlandtribune.com/pt/9-news/336461-216482-lawmakers-ok-plan-to-finish-teaching-150-portland-nursing-students

[exboyfil]

1. Shame on us as a society in that we cannot have sufficient

funding in public education to preclude these vultures from having an opening.

The nursing board pass rate is much lower for the ITT students than the PCC students (74% vs. 97%).
https://www.oregon.gov/OSBN/pdfs/passrates.pdf

Tuition at ITT was $493/hr. (degree takes 109 hrs for a total tuition cost (without fees)) of $54K. The comparable PCC program was $97/hr. (degree takes 135 trisemester hrs (equivalent to 90 hrs. for a Fall/Spring schedule) for a total tuition cost of $13K).

In both cases the degree awarded is an Associates which is not the preferred degree anymore (hospitals prefer the B.S.N.).

The PCC gets better results at 1/4th the price. Why would anyone have chosen the ITT program all else being equal (space available in the PCC program etc). While the PCC program is subsidized with tax dollars, I still challenge that it comes anywhere near the cost of the ITT program in cost to deliver.

In the article one of the students who did not meet the cutoff was expressing frustration on losing her investment. As a one time deal I wonder if PCC should look to at least accept her Social Studies/Science/Math credits. She still would have to run the traps to get into the nursing program, but at least she would have credits to start towards another A.S. degree. Other community colleges should also look to do this for for profits who have shut down.

Here is another nugget which I found.

"ITT received $169 million [in Pell grants last year], which went to almost 50,000 recipients," said Lauren Walizer, senior policy analyst at the Center for Postsecondary and Economic Success at the Center for Law and Social Policy. "This is a significant number of low-income students, who, without being made whole again, through loan discharges and restoration of Pell eligibility, will continue to be harmed by their attendance at ITT."

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/09/01/options-itt-tech-students-if-profit-chain-collapses