Senator Harkin Takes on For-Profit College Issue
We thought you’d like to hear about someone who is trying to help students facing problems at for-profit colleges.
Senator Tom Harkin
Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa is becoming a champion for students who’ve voiced concerns about their experiences at for-profit colleges. The Senator wrote an editorial for the LA Times cautioning that the scenario students are facing is painfully similar to the recent mortgage meltdown. Harkin is Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee and launched the first in a series of hearings last month to investigate the for-profit college industry. In his editorial, Senator Harkin quotes one of the witnesses who testified, Wall Street money manager Steve Eisman, who predicted the sub-prime mortgage collapse:
Wall Street money manager Steven Eisman told the committee that many for-profit colleges are “marketing machines masquerading as universities.” Their rapid growth is driven by easy access to federal student loans, guaranteed by the government. “The government, the students and the taxpayer bear all the risk,” Eisman testified, “and the for-profit industry reaps all the rewards.”
Senator Harkin goes on to point out just how great those rewards are proving to be for executives at for-profit schools:
The president of the largest for-profit college is paid nearly 14 times the compensation of the president of Harvard University.
Meanwhile, he writes students are often left in an even worse financial position with little recourse:
Subprime borrowers were able to walk away from their homes and, therefore, their debt. But it is a different story for millions of students who take out loans to attend for-profit colleges. Under the law, people cannot discharge student debt in bankruptcy; so if they can’t pay it off, it will continue to accrue compounded interest indefinitely.
Click here to read more from Senator Harkin’s editorial.
Be sure to continue speaking out and sharing your story. People are beginning to listen.
