Title:
For-Profit Colleges in US May Face Tests on Federal
Student Aid
Description: This is
a VOA Special English Education Report.
See text below
Text:
President Obama wants the United States to have the
world's highest rate of college graduates. But his
administration also wants stronger rules for
colleges that operate for profit. Career colleges
receive billions of dollars from taxpayers through
student loans. The Education Department says some of
that goes to waste and leaves students in debt for
educations of little or no value. To receive federal
aid, career colleges must prepare students for what
the law calls "gainful employment" in a recognized
occupation. Two tests are proposed to see if they
do.One would measure the relationship between debt
loads and how much students earn after they complete
a program. The other would measure the rate at which
all students repay their loans, whether they
complete the program or not. Programs that fail
these tests could be restricted or blocked from
federal student aid. The Education Department says
for-profit colleges and training programs are
important. In two thousand eight they had close to
two million students -- nearly three times more than
in two thousand. Last year, the five largest
received more than three-fourths of their money from
federal student aid. And that amount did not include
other forms of government aid. Yet officials say
for-profit colleges may be less supervised than
other schools. They also point to reports of highly
aggressive marketing. For every one hundred
graduates of for-profit colleges, eighteen fail to
repay their federal student loans. That compares to
five graduates of public colleges and universities.
The department is now collecting public comments on
a number of negotiated rules. Some would require
career colleges to release their graduation and job
placement rates. The goal is to publish a final rule
by November.The Career College Association called
the debt-to-earnings proposal unwise, unnecessary,
unproven -- and unlawful. The group says it has
found that students in higher priced programs are
more likely, not less likely, to repay their
students loans. It says the move could end programs
serving three hundred thousand students. Female and
minority students would face the most harm, it says,
as they are more likely to attend career colleges.
The association also points to shrinking budgets for
community colleges. Its president, Harris Miller,
says "Students need more information, not fewer
choices."And that's the VOA Special English
Education Report.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
