And a certain ideology wants to privatize everything, purely for bottom line profit, while they also want all of it to be self regulated answering to no one! And they actually think this is good for a society of which they are members of!
Jun 26, 2012 - The GI Bill was designed to help veterans, but the biggest beneficiaries seem to be the for-profit private schools that are raking in taxpayer dollars.The Department of Veterans Affairs bankrolls four years of higher education for veterans who have served since September 11, 2001. The VA paid out $4.4 billion for tuition and fees in the two academic years spanning 2009 to 2011. For-profit private schools raked in 37% of those funds, but educated just 25% of veterans, according to the U.S. Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) committee.
So what are taxpayers getting in return? According to the VA, the graduation rate is just 28% at for-profit schools like University of Phoenix and DeVry University (for all students, not just veterans). That compares with a graduation rate of 67% at non-profit private schools and 57% at public schools.
The GI Bill covers all tuition at public schools, and up to $17,000 per year at private schools. But tuition at many private schools far exceeds that, so veterans take out loans to cover the balance.
The average tuition at a for-profit school is steep -- six times higher than a community college and double the cost of a four-year public school, according to Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, chairman of the HELP committee. And students at for-profit schools have a loan-default rate of 47%, according to the Senate committee.
In 2010, after hearing complaints from constituents about problems with for-profit schools, Harkin conducted an undercover investigation.
The cost of war: Soaring disability payments for veterans
"The findings alarmed me," said Harkin, in an email to CNNMoney. "We found widespread predatory and deceptive recruiting practices, high drop-out rates and inadequate, or even non-existent, academic and student support services, among other things." read more>>>
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