Career Colleges Put Profit Before Education

This is the story of a system failing, but it is also the story of a man failing to fulfill his moral obligation, a man who let the system chew up students and spit them out $30,000 in debt, with little hope of decent employment or having transcripts accepted anywhere. It is the story of an educational empire built off students mortgaging their future. 

On a minor scale, this is my story and how I acquiesced to a system and failed to do the right thing. 

On a broader level, looking back, I can understand how ENRONs happen, how people do not step forward when they should, when they must. 

In my case, very little was at stake, a few hundred a week, bad health insurance and a whiff of respect. What would I have done, if millions of dollars were at stake, if I were the CEO of a major corporation ?

If I had little to lose, the students had everything to lose. I could have stepped forward to stop years of pain and financial hardship for the students. 

But I didn’t. 

Perhaps what keeps me staring at the wall at 3 in the morning, is the question that begs for an answer – what does it take for a good man to step forward and do the right thing? In today’s society, is it too easy for any of us to sell out for a hint of security ? 

And on another level, what I am about to relate, makes you worry about the proliferation of “for profit” educational institutions. It makes you worry about colleges that exist to “make a buck.” 

Because when you exist to turn a profit, does the student become just a customer, does education become just a commodity, is the student shoved aside for profit margins and the bottom line? I suspect the answer is yes. 

I have chatted with the owners of “for profit”” colleges and rarely do they discuss the quality of education. Rather they are fixated on enrollment numbers and profit margins.