For-profit college conglomerates take in millions of U.S. students—12 percent of the nation’s college students—and pocket their publicly-financed student grants and loans—$30 billion annually—while their students account for nearly 50 percent of loan defaults. These outfits generate substantial profits, attract Wall Street speculators and hedge funds to finance their expansion all the while making a joke (on us) of the notion that “private industry does it better.”
For-profit colleges in New Jersey
New Jersey is not a big player in for-profit higher education—eleven schools, several with multiple campuses—but, with some 20,000 students enrolled, it’s big enough.
Unlike other states, though, New Jersey is barely involved in the effort to turn off the spigot and protect students even though two of the colleges operating in this state—Berkeley and DeVry—make the top 25 list of the worst of the for-profit colleges. The University of Phoenix earns honorable mention, and yet another, ITT, was ordered to pay $9.2 million to the students who sued following a trial in Camden just weeks ago. This private technical college, with 47,000 students, has been investigated or sued by 19 states and several federal agencies for false claims and questionable business practices.
If New Jersey is concerned, it’s not apparent. Not only is the state’s attorney general absent from the joint efforts of the other states, even the state’s official website on higher education lists the colleges with no reference—none whatsoever—to the investigations or lawsuits involving the colleges operating in New Jersey that are being sued or are under investigation by state and federal agencies.
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