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Private Colleges and Public Debt
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Private Colleges and Public Debt

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When public, community colleges are full to the brim, private, for-profit colleges are an alternative. But they cost up to ten times as much and require many students to get federal loans they often cannot repay. We hear why the Department of Education wants to crack down. Also, an update on protests in Syria, and the predatory behavior of men against women in "post-feminist" society.

Banner image: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

Making News

Update on Protests in Syria ()

Tens of thousands of Syrians defied President Assad and took to the streets again today. Police fired on the crowd and at least 26 people were killed in several cities. Borzou Daragahi is Middle East correspondent for the Los Angeles Times.

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Main Topic

Regulating For-Profit Colleges ()

Across the country, public community colleges are inundated with applicants, but filled to capacity at a time when the public sector is cutting back. In the past ten years, private, for-profit colleges have picked up the slack by targeting low-income and minority students with massive recruiting campaigns. They have tripled enrollment and become a multi-billion dollar industry. Classes are funded by student loans, which the students, not the colleges, have to repay. Now the Department of Education is asking questions, trying to crack down on what it claims are abuses. Why do so many students go into default? Did they get what the colleges promised: jobs good enough to allow them to pay back the loans? Were they qualified in the first place? Are new rules needed to get abuses under control?

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Reporter's Notebook

Strauss-Kahn, Schwarzenegger: Power and Sex ()

A judge has ruled that the former head of the International Monetary Fund can be bailed under very restrictive conditions. Today, a New York judge established stringent conditions to make sure that Dominque Strauss-Kahn won't be a flight risk once he's released on bail. A long way from conviction -- he has hasn't even entered a plea -- he had to give up one of the world's most powerful jobs after a maid accused him of sexual assault. But DSK, as he's now known in the press, is hardly the only public male figure to recently be involved in cases involving alleged or proven abuse against women. What about all the publicity about other powerful men — former Senator Ensign, former New York Governor Spitzer – former California Governor Schwarzenegger?

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