Negative effects of privatizing education

For-profit education has been more prevalent recently, and investors have benefited greatly. However, there are drawbacks to privatizing education, such as difficulty in obtaining the caliber of degrees offered by colleges due to the lack of a set norm. Five to six times as much as community colleges’ and twice as much as four-year state universities’ tuition is charged at for-profit institutions (College, Inc.). Over $30,000 in student debt is the result of significant borrowing to finance for-profit education, and this debt further rises with postponement, high interest rates, and penalties. The other adverse effect is that low cost, convenience, and ease of finishing in for-profit schools become values to the detriment of things that can be achieved slowly and with time affecting the quality of education.

The other negatives effect of privatizing education is that for-profit colleges spend more on sales and marketing and little on teaching creating fear of the focus on enrolment and not providing quality education. For-profit universities use false advertising information, unethical or illegal recruitment efforts, and falsification of information affecting the credibility of for-profit schools. There is also pressure on the recruiters to meet the recruitment targets by the universities including increased calls and pressure on students to enroll misleading them to take loans they cannot afford. For-profit education brings in students who cannot succeed or graduate creating burdens for them including substantial loan debts and offering low-quality education like Phoenix University, which settled $67.5 million out of court to avoid court battles with the government over false advertising. Argosy University was not accredited to offer the doctor of psychology course yet students were told otherwise, and Everest College did not offer adequate training for three nursing students leaving these students with huge debts and unhelpful certificates.

Why we are still privatizing despite the negative effects

The negative effects have not been enough to cause a halt to privatization of education because the traditional colleges cannot meet the high demand especially that of working Americans seeking to further their education to improve job prospects. The changing economic times have made it clear that knowledge is a requirement and many job holders are going back to school increasing pressure on community colleges and opening opportunities for for-profit education investors. The for-profit schools are serving a market that has been underserved and profitable and generates a lot of free cash flow attracting a lot of financiers. Grand Canyon College is the most successful for-profit institution and offers state of the art facilities with 400% increase in enrolment in the last few years. For-profit education provides low income working adults and poor students a chance to access education and with the online learning providing these schools access to a lot of students at a small cost.

The other reason for education privatization is the financial struggles of traditional institutions from the effects of economic depression. An example is Patten University, which lost 50% of its assets and had to privatize to overcome financial difficulties. The for-profit education helps meet the college graduation goals by the government and with limited funding for public education; these schools help students who could not access community colleges and state schools.

How for-profit education reinforce inequality in America

For-profit education reinforces inequality in America by ensuring the students from top income earning families attend Tier 1 private universities that are associated with high-value degrees. Many students from needy families cannot afford to pay to attend elite schools. The effect is that students from high-income families access the best education and get into high paying jobs that improve their income positions. Students from low-income families cannot obtain quality education and with dependence on loans are left poorer with colossal student debt.

Work Cited

“College, Inc.” Produced by Smith, Martin., Durrance, Chris., & Maggio, John, Frontline, The Public Broadcasting Service, May 4, 2010.