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Education Secretary Arne Duncan says the Education Department wants to make sure that loan programs that prey on students don’t continue their abusive practices. Now Kimberly Hefling reports at PBS that for-profit colleges that don’t produce graduates capable of paying off their student loans could soon stand to lose access to federal student-aid programs. In order to receive federal student aid, the law requires that most for-profit programs, regardless of credential level, and most non-degree programs at non-profit and public institutions, including community colleges, prepare students for "gainful employment in a recognized occupation." To meet these “gainful employment” standards, a program will have to show that the estimated annual loan payment of a typical graduate does not exceed 20 percent of his or her discretionary income or 8 percent of total earnings. "Career colleges must be a stepping stone to the middle class. But too many hard-working students find themselves buried in debt with little to show for it. That is simply unacceptable," says Duncan . "These regulations are a necessary step to ensure that colleges accepting federal funds protect students, cut costs and improve outcomes. We will continue to take action as needed."
But not everyone is convinced the rules go far enough. "The rule is far too weak to address the grave misconduct of predatory for-profit colleges," writes David Halperin. "The administration missed an opportunity to issue a strong rule, to take strong executive action and provide real leadership on this issue." The final gainful employment regulations follow an extensive rulemaking process involving public hearings, negotiations and about 95,000 public comments and will go into effect on July 1, 2015
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Sunday November 02 2014, @04:33AM
>There are no jobs. We knew there weren't enough. There weren't going to be enough.
Let's say I'm one of those jaded youths. Populations are rising everywhere. Technology is making things millions of times more efficient. In the classic economic model, how can everyone make money to support themselves if there aren't enough jobs to do? Pay the wages of thousands of factory workers to the man who owns the machines that displaced them. And you can't just innovate jobs endlessly, human wants are limited, despite what economists would like to tell you. I simply cannot desire more food/entertainment than I can consume in my 16 hour waking period per day nor take up more shelter room than a small house (1% sub-humans notwithstanding). So after we've filled up all of the practical and necessary jobs (agriculture, construction, etc.), all of the entertainment jobs (the world doesn't need, and cannot pay, one thousand authors all writing the same teenage vampire romance drama), all of the innovative jobs (the world doesn't need one thousand tech startups all trying to be the next Facebook), what do the rest of us do? Maybe we can just hire half of them to lay down rails from one coast to the other, and the other half to dismantle them. Gotta pay the somehow, right?
Let's say I'm one of those jaded youths. What do I do? Compete for a job in the corrupt system so that one of my peers can go hungry?
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