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Today, ITT Educational Services, Inc. (ITT) announced that it is closing all of its ITT Technical Institute campuses. For most of the world, that news will be covered as a business story or a political one, but I know that for you it is deeply personal. You are probably wondering what this means for your future; how it is going to affect your finances and your ability to continue your education.
In recent years, ITT has increasingly been the subject of numerous state and federal investigations. In August, ITT's accreditor, the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS) determined that ITT "is not in compliance, and is unlikely to become in compliance with [ACICS] Accreditation Criteria." This came amid increasingly heightened financial oversight measures put in place by the Department over the past two years due to significant concerns about ITT's administrative capacity, organizational integrity, financial viability, and ability to serve students.
[...] Whatever you choose to do, do not give up on your education. Higher education remains the clearest path to economic opportunity and security. Restarting or continuing your education at a high-quality, reputable institution may feel like a setback today, but odds are it will pay off in the long run. There are people and tools – like our College Scorecard – out there to help you pick a program that gives you a real shot at success.
I am proud of your hard work and dedication, and we will do all we can to continue to provide information to you on your options.
Sincerely,
John B. King Jr., U.S. Secretary of Education
Source: Department of Education
(Score: 4, Insightful) by bradley13 on Wednesday September 07 2016, @06:23AM
I'd like to take AC's comment apart, because there are a lot of issues all munged together here:
Profit is exactly what is wrong with modern education!
Why? Just like any business, you can have good ones and you can have bad ones. Our local painter is in it for the profit. He does a damned good job, because happy customers tell other potential customers, who then come and give him business. He could do crap work, rake in the dough short-term, but it would kill his business.
State-run schools, are those better, because they're run by the government? I teach for one, and it's a good, solid school, but you get all the disadvantages of any government organization. We also have financial incentives of various sorts, different from those a privately run school would have, and possibly even more out-of-line with educating our students.
Or were you thinking of non-profit organizations? Non-profits are no guarantee of pure intentions. Too often, they are just a way to dodge taxes. The Clinton Foundation is a non-profit, 'nuff said.
Profit is not an evil word, and there's nothing special about the education business. Apparently ITT was crap, just like there are bad painters in the world. Fine, go find a better place to spend you money.
don't call it education, call it TRAINING
Fair enough, those really are two different concepts. A general education vs. training in a particular trade. The thing is: there's nothing wrong with that!
If you want to learn to be a painter (to continue the earlier example), you don't need to read Shakespeare. Instead, you need very specific information on paints and colors, and lots of practical, hands-on training. It's frankly no different for being a network admin, or a sys-admin, or a db-admin - those are the hands-on, practical jobs of IT, and "training" is exactly what you need.
The fact that ITT provided lousy training is not a valid criticism of the concept.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Wednesday September 07 2016, @02:15PM
Both you and op seem to miss that management by numbers produces little more than nice numbers. If the number is profit, at least someone's making bucks.
The local public tech school (basically ITT, although with accreditation and about 1/10th the cost and something like 56 of my 64 credits transferred in some way or another to a 4 year school) has its own "management by numbers" problems, although at least the numbers they're managing by isn't profit or revenue.
So... my county funds a public tech, and the county to the east funds a county tech, and I always kinda figured ITT was for people who live in areas without good public education, along the lines of one way or another you're gonna pay.
Also technically ITT wasn't in the education business any more than my local credit union is in the house building business... they're just loan originators / packagers.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by HiThere on Wednesday September 07 2016, @07:39PM
Education should not be a business. (Neither should running a prison.)
There should be craft training for those who want to learn crafts. Ideally that should lead to a job, but don't count on it anymore. Still, plumbing, cabinet making, etc. need to be taught by those skilled in the art. Apprenticeships had their points, but they had lots of bad points too, and anyway few craftsmen are willing to take on a 12 year old and teach him for 20 years, and 12 year olds can no longer be bound to that kind of a contract. There are reasons why master craftsmen have disappeared, and the reasons aren't all bad.
There should be academic trade training for those who want to learn those trades. Computer science, Engineering, etc. Ideally that should lead to a job, but don't count on it. University based liberal education shouldn't be a requirement for those only interested in learning a trade.
There should also be university based liberal education for those who want to learn something about everything.. One can hope that this will lead to a job, but don't expect it.
These should all be done as social good, not as businesses. And rapidly advancing automation implies that nobody should be required to devote years learning something and be required to know in advance that it will be needed when he graduates. That's impossible. Too many unexpected jobs have already been automated out of existence, or de-skilled to the point where a trained pigeon could do them. Nobody should end up worse off for having made the wrong commitment to a skill. Education should, if not earning a salary, at least be free, including texts...but this doesn't mean easy. If society is paying the bill for the education, students that don't measure up to the requirements should be kicked out of the class. Perhaps they can try again in a few more years, or in a different school...but no sooner than next school year. This would mean that finals are more important, and probably implies the quarter system, or perhaps even a shorter term.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.