Students Testify on Capitol Hill Against Predatory For-Profit Colleges

[eridani]

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/35302-students-testify-on-capitol-hill-against-predatory-for-profit-colleges

The stories told to the Senate panel were emotional. According to the Huffington Post, Alicia Stevens, who enrolled at the Florida Metropolitan University in 2005, graduated with $33,000 and little hope for a job, given the poor quality of education she received. She lives on Social Security payments, and is likely to be forced to live out of her car due to her financial situation. Another student, Alyse Zachary, was told she would be kicked out of ITT Technical Institute if she did not sign up for a high-interest private loan. She graduated $30,000 in debt.

One of the most heartbreaking stories was that of Pam Hunt, a former Corinthian student who studied criminal justice and owes $172,000. She is without a job and is currently homeless, along with her five children, one of whom is disabled.

Despite the increasing amount of evidence suggesting that many for-profit colleges function as little more than scams, the federal government will likely not apply blanket debt forgiveness to students affected by predatory, dishonest programs. Students will instead have to work through their options individually, which can often be a lengthy and fruitless endeavor. The activists who met with government officials on Thursday were disappointed when Education Department Special Master Joseph Smith told them that it was unlikely that the government would act to help groups of students in similar situations. The federal government will likely opt for the individualized process, as opposed to group-focused action, instead. The Department of Education, while mindful of the dangers of for-profit colleges, has been very slow to provide relief to students in need.

[get the red out]

1. I worked at one of these places

I worked at one of these places for a while, total scam, students graduated making no more money than before but in debt. I didn't stay in that job for long. It was a sales job of a defective product.

[Baobab]

2. GATS (1995) TTIP, TiSA, TPP, and WTO (+USA) are making commercialization of much education mandatory

around the world by means of permanent, irreversible trade deals which do an end run around elections.

The exemptions are systems where education (or health care - the same issues and rules apply there) has been completely free since before December 1994 or 1998. (this is due to the standstill/ratchet and scope definition in GATS Article I:3 - as well as GATS *dates* (according to Ms. Lori Wallach's reading of the use of standstill dates in TiSA this would be likely 1995 for non financial and 1998 for financial services) being borrowed in TiSA.

So, in the case of health care, Canada's Medicare may be able to escape privatization if it manages to keep money completely out of the picture which may subject it to attack under the new trade deals. (See the http://policyalternatives.ca web site under Trade project, for numerous explorations of this and related questions.)

Its less likely dates in 1998 would apply in TPP -its more likely the date of WTO accession (late 1994) would likely be the "standstill" rollback, etc. date (date subsequent nonconforming regulations would be rolled back to.)

The first US-style trade deal to start the commoditization process was our 1995 GATS or General Agreement on Trade in Services.

You can read more about Article I:3's definition of the scope of what services are exempted here in

http://www.iatp.org/files/GATS_and_Public_Service_Systems.htm

This statement by the 850 member European University Association identifies the deals as attacks on the continued existence of public higher education.

[Ike Y]

3. For-Profit Schools, For-Profit Prisons

And yet, for-profit sex remains illegal.