Bill Maher, Congressman Kline, and the For-Profit College Industry

Both Bill Maher and local news weekly City Pages (the Minneapolis version of the Village Voice) have been trashing Congressman John Kline, who has been the chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce since 2010. The main issue at hand is the for-profit College industry. These for-profit institutions literally hire more recruiters than teachers ("get asses in classes") and single out Americans who are veterans, uneducated, or simply gullible. Once enrolled - at least on one occasion, promising a new student that her classes would be free due to grants and then later charging her tens of thousands of dollars - the education matters little. Often, upwards of 90% of students fail to graduate, and those that do find that their diplomas are worthless. The purpose is to make billions of dollars, most of it coming from us (federal grants and military benefits). Here's where Kline comes in:

Kline, again running to retain his seat in congress, has received about a million dollars from the for-profit college industry for both this election cycle and the last one. In turn, Kline has worked as hard as possible to prevent any meaningful change in the industry. Among the worst offenders, such as the University of Phoenix and the Twin Cities for-profit Rassmussen college, are Kline's biggest donors.

I've had several friends who went to these schools and all had the same story: they were promised job placement when they graduated, got a crap education, ended up at least $30,000-$40,000 in debt, and were never given any job placement. Their diplomas mean nothing because everybody knows these schools are crap! That debt hurts the economy because the graduates have no money to spend and are no better off than before. The enormous amount of federal money that is put into these schools is putting us further in debt. It's all a big scam, and Kline is the one running a protection racket for them. Bottom line: this issue needs to be brought to the attention of the public.

Links below:

Bill Maher makes Northfield stop in effort to oust John Kline - TwinCities.com

"He never says anything crazy, but he votes exactly like crazy people," Maher said

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John Kline's Descent From Patriot to the Whore of Higher Ed | City Pages

I just don't see why people would pay the extra dollars for some places like Phoenix when nowadays plenty of traditional brick and mortar universities have online programs.

BrewerBob said:

I just don't see why people would pay the extra dollars for some places like Phoenix when nowadays plenty of traditional brick and mortar universities have online programs.

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To those of us educated on education it seems obvious, but these for-profit colleges are generally preying on those without much history of exposure to the higher education system.

Mustachio said:

I've had several friends who went to these schools and all had the same story: they were promised job placement when they graduated, got a crap education, ended up at least $30,000-$40,000 in debt, and were never given any job placement. Their diplomas mean nothing because everybody knows these schools are crap! That debt hurts the economy because the graduates have no money to spend and are no better off than before. The enormous amount of federal money that is put into these schools is putting us further in debt. It's all a big scam, and Kline is the one running a protection racket for them. Bottom line: this issue needs to be brought to the attention of the public.

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For profit assembly line colleges also threaten government solvency as the poorly qualified students usually qualify for government student loans. The colleges get the cash, and the usually low income student gets a meaningless degree.

Then when the government tries to collect the loan, it often learns that "you cant get blood from a stone". And of course, the numbers of stones have grown and we all can be thrown down.... .

Man, I think I need a degree in uhmm.... "Analytical Poetry" from the University of Phoenix

Unrepresented said:

To those of us educated on education it seems obvious, but these for-profit colleges are generally preying on those without much history of exposure to the higher education system.

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Right, and the people I know who went to those schools were from very small towns. So they check out the "Minnesota School of Business" and they get in, are promised a job, and told that the majority of the tuition will be paid for with grants. It makes sense why somebody would fall for it.

What the article about Kline hits on, which is pretty great, is the idea that he's made his name as a military guy both before and during his political career. Yet, he's the biggest proponent of a system which exploits military benefits and screws over our veterans by sticking them with debt and useless diplomas. I genuinely pity any veteran who votes for Kline thinking that this guy has their back.