Private "for-profit" colleges, raking in the dough but failing dismally. It's the students fault. They're low paid and poor. No privatization of education!

We are all aware that the privatization of education is a goal the capitalist class is aggressively pursuing. There’s a lot of money to be had investing in education and, if they have their way, soft drinks and their cheap fries and burgers will dominate the school lunch counter, brought to us by Jack in the Box, Burger King and others.

We only have to look at the top universities and see their wealth to understand what a lucrative business education is. It is very important also as the education system is designed to churn out successful entrepreneurs that can make capitalism function.

Robert Silberman

The most lucrative section of the education industry it turns out is for-profit colleges like Apollo Group and Education Management. The University of Phoenix, the largest for-profit college is part of the Apollo group. Strayer Education is another education corporation whose executives are doing pretty good. Robert Silberman, CEO of Strayer made $41.9 million last year.

Three quarters of Strayer’s revenue comes from the US taxpayer according to Business Week. * This for-profit education business receives some 90% of its revenue from federal financial aid programs which makes it a “private enterprise that’s almost entirely publicly funded” says one analyst. This shouldn’t surprise us as private enterprise from the building of sports arenas to the building of cars is funded by the taxpayers. They nationalize the expenses and keep the profits privatized; then there are wars, the great public expenditure which is a very lucrative business for the arms manufacturers.

They are very quick in their mass media to blame the lack of free market policies for the failure of the public education system or any other social need. Teachers are also the culprits according to the billionaires; they just can’t wait to dip their snouts further in to the public education business.

But the record of these for-profit colleges is not so great. Defaults on student loans are three times the private “non-profit” schools and the “Graduation for first time, full-time candidates for four-year degrees at for-profit colleges is 22%, vs. 55% at state colleges and 65% at private non-profit institutions.” BW adds.

As usual, their mouthpieces and lobbyists who bribe the politicians defend the high pay due to their “records as entrepreneurs” says one of their representatives; if they bring good returns for the investors, who cares about education.  Anyway, it's public money that keeps us going ha ha!  It appears that their dismal record as educators doesn’t matter, their willingness to finagle public funds for profit making and handing over plenty of this money to their executives and shareholders is what matters. Anyway, says their mouthpiece that heads their gang, er, I mean Association, the default rate is the students’ fault, it reflects, “the lower socio-economic status of students, rather than the quality of institutions.” Those undisciplined low waged and poor workers on the lower rungs of society. If they were more responsible and worked harder, had some get up and go, they’d be able to manage three jobs and full time school after they get back from fighting for freedom in Afghanistan. Hell, George bush did it.

Public education wasn’t always here. The ruling class didn’t consider educating workers worthwhile until it became necessary and in their interests to do so:

In 1903 Mother Jones led the Children’s Crusade with hundreds of children crippled in America’s factories, some as young as 5-years-old. Their slogan was “We want to go to School!” Mother Jones was a socialist and organizer with the Miners’ Union. The Federal Government passed a very weak Child Labor Law, but under pressure from big business, the Supreme Court struck it down as “violating the child’s right to contract his work.”**

The taxpayer already subsides industry and education with the private sector the middleman scooping the cream off the top. We demand:

* No to privatization: Private sector out of our schools
* Full Federal Funding for Schools
* End property tax-based school funding
* Repeal NCLB
* No to Merit Pay for Teachers
* Unionize all Schools, hire one million teachers
* Class size of 15
* Tax the rich, end the wars and increase education budget
* Control of education and curriculum by those that receive it, students, parents and teachers

*Where For-Profits Beat the Ivory League BW 11-22-10
** See Ending the Cycle of “Crisis” in Our K-12 Public Schools This document can be downloaded