An article in Inside Higher Ed looks at moves in California to increase oversight of the for-profit sector of higher education. Bob Shireman and the Century Foundation have been instrumental in convincing law makers in California to step up state-level oversight as the federal Dept. of Education has reduced it’s regulation of the sector.
From the article:
Some of the proposals, which Robert Shireman and the Century Foundation helped craft, appear to go after specific institutions. Shireman, a former deputy undersecretary of education in the Obama administration and a senior fellow at the foundation, said states watched as DeVos dropped Obama-era student aid regulations that largely targeted the for-profit sector. And he said some state lawmakers subsequently approached him and other groups for guidance.
“It has become much clearer that the federal government is not interested in actually policing the federal loan program and has actually reversed a lot of the guardrails that were set up by the Obama administration,” said Shireman. “Much of the legislation we’re seeing is a combination of addressing some of the problems we’re seeing right now, but also preventing future Corinthians, future Ashfords, future Argosys.”
It says something about the nature of accreditation (which of course is heavily assessment focused) that all these schools are able to get accreditation. Legitimate colleges spend huge amounts of time and money on accreditation, but some how the worst of the for-profits still get accredited too. How meaningful can that process be if these academically weak and often predatory schools are able to meet the same accreditation standards as real colleges.