On the recordMay 19, 2011
I say to my friend, the Senator is right on target. What has happened as we have looked at this over the last year and a half now is even the good actors are being sucked into this vortex because the business model itself is bad. For example, how many times has my friend heard from the for-profit industry: Well, the reason we have these high dropout rates--for example, here is Westwood; 57.6 percent dropped out in the first year. Here is Kaplan; 69.1 percent dropped out in the first year--the reason we do is because, see, we serve a lot of low-income students. These are low-income people we serve, and they have a lot of problems in their lives. That is why we have such a high dropout rate. What they are not telling us is, because of the business model, that is exactly who they go after to recruit. Why do they do that? Because the lowest income student gets the highest Pell grant and the most guaranteed student loan. So if you are in the for-profit business and you want to make the most money, you don't want to recruit Senator Durbin's son or daughter. You want to recruit somebody whose parents never went to college, who is probably a minority, maybe doesn't even speak English all that well, who can get the maximum Pell grant and the maximum student loan, and once they get the money--well, if they stay, fine; if they don't, no big deal.
