Gee, a Senator being concerned about people being able to afford college cost...

This article from the Sunday Houston Chronicle caught my eye for a multitude of reasons.

Proposals take aim at for-profit colleges

WASHINGTON — The for-profit college industry says it will vigorously oppose proposed regulations by the Obama administration designed to protect students at for-profit colleges from amassing huge debt they can’t pay off.

The proposed regulations would penalize career oriented programs that produce graduates without the training needed to find a job with a salary that will allow them to pay off their debt. Schools, for-profit or not, that don’t comply would lose access to the federal student aid programs.
“Career-training programs offer millions of Americans an opportunity they desperately need to further their education and reach the middle class,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan said last week. “Today, too many of these programs fail to provide students with the training that they need at taxpayers’ expense and the cost to these students’ futures.”...

...In 2012, the for-profit colleges convinced a judge that similar regulations were too arbitrary. Steve Gunderson, president and CEO of the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities, said in a statement that the proposed regulations would “deny millions of students the opportunity for higher earnings.” His association argues that the regulations would have a long-term impact on the nation’s ability to address workforce demands and improve the economy, and he called the proposed regulations “discriminatory” and “punitive.”

For-profit programs are popular among nontraditional students, some of who have been laid off during the economic downturn.

Gunderson said no decision has been made on whether more legal action will be taken.

The administration has long sought to block federal student aid from programs that do not prepare students for “gainful employment” in a recognized occupation. The programs covered under the proposed regulations include nearly all programs at for-profit schools, as well as certificate programs at public and private nonprofit institutions, such as community colleges, according to the Education Department.

Duncan said for-profit colleges can receive up to 90 percent of their revenue from federal financial aid programs. If blocked from participating, some could be forced to close, he said.

Since when has the education industry been interested in getting its students skills and knowledge needed for employment? Hey, do you think we have enough sociology and art history majors in the country? Most people going through a "for profit" university are doing it to advance their career in one way or another. Count myself as one. I'm getting my master's at an online university and the reason is for advancement. It's another point for promotion and it is also another one-hundred collars a paycheck.

Now another point I find curious is the implied statement that "traditional" colleges are not "for profit". The Ivy Leaque has endowments larger than the GDP of many nations. From Online Universities.Com,

10 Surprising Facts About University Endowments

Have you ever thought it might be nice to have a building at your alma mater named after you, that will stand long after you’re gone? The dream can be yours for a few hundred million dollars. For most of us, that effectively closes the book on that fantasy. We may give in to a donations call from our old school and mail in a check, but for the most part college endowments are a vague part of academia that we don’t concern ourselves with much. If that’s true for you, check out these 10 facts about university endowments that might surprise you.

Total college endowments in the U.S. reach the hundreds of billions of dollars: There is serious money in college endowments. In 2009, the total amount of endowments in this country was $326 billion. That amount was a 21% drop from the previous year’s total of $413 billion. Today, 75 colleges have endowments in the billions, with Harvard far and away the leader with an endowment of $32 billion, followed by Yale at $19 billion. Even with these high values, many schools are still struggling to return to their 2008 endowment levels.

Ivy League endowment fund managers get access to the best opportunities: In a 2008 study, researchers from Harvard and MIT sought to explain why wealthier schools, like those in the Ivy League, receive endowments that far outpace other schools. The obvious answer was that high-quality alumni get good jobs for good money, then they donate. But a surprising find was that the excellent investment returns these endowment funds get are the result of managers’ connections and special access to the top strata of alternative funds. In other words, endowment funds at wealthy schools secure the best management talent because they’re wealthy, and the best managers make them wealthier, and around and around it goes.

Many universities do not have to disclose investment information: It might surprise environmentally-conscious students to learn that the fund managers for their school’s endowment have invested in coal companies. Unfortunately, for students with these and similar qualms about doing business with certain corporations, some states have laws that protect venture capital firms from disclosing where the investments from the endowments of even public universities go. Companies in states like Colorado and Michigan have successfully lobbied for laws exempting them from a requirement to reveal their investment info, calling it "trade secrets." In some states, like California, firms find a way around the disclosure laws by investing in "funds of funds" that disclose aggregate return info but not info on specific companies.

Most colleges only spend about 4.5% of their endowments: Many may wonder what happens to the millions and even billions of dollars some colleges control in endowments. Typically more than 95% of the money is invested, leaving 5% or less to be granted to scholarships, professorships, and social work. Many people, including some influential politicians, have asked in recent years if this rate of spending justifies the tax exemption they get. There have been proposals to set a 5% spending floor that universities must meet to allow more needy kids to go to college and for more to be done in poor countries.

Endowments probably can’t be used to lower tuition: This is a fact college administrators would prefer you knew. Although many may look at the billion dollar endowments some schools enjoy, almost half of colleges and universities have smaller endowments than they did in 2008, courtesy of the recession. More growth years like 2011 are needed before schools could begin to use endowments to lower tuition. As it stands, the median endowment size of $90 million only translates into $4.5 million in spendable money annually, not enough to enable significant tuition decreases for students...

Sounds a bit like serious money. And a serious racket. But it's not the only one. Last year Rolling Stone wrote an excellent article on how we are pushing high school students into a one size fit all racket, where you must go to college, get a degree, etc. What the degree is for doesn't matter, you need a degree. And at the age most people cannot afford a car note on a decent used car we will put you in debt for a mortgage with little to show for it. Then the 23 year old gets out in the real world and finds his BA in Victim Studies fail to provide students with the training that they need at taxpayers’ expense and the cost to these students’ futures.”

Now back to the article.

“Some of these programs — whether public, private or for-profit — empower students to succeed by providing high-quality education and career training. But many of these programs, particularly those at for-profit colleges, are failing to do so,” the Education Department said in a fact sheet.
On Capitol Hill, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, said he was concerned that the proposed regulations don’t go far enough in protecting students.
But Republicans criticized the administration’s actions and said low-income students would be disproportionately affected.

Open secret is the Democrats, bought and paid for by the education establishment, doesn't care. Brick and mortar universities serve a purpose but not what's going on right now. But any bureaucracy hates competition and daylight. It means people may be shown the truth of a business, funded by tax breaks, is making a fortune and producing less and less. And we are enslaving generations of young people with massive debt for useless education.