Career College Association Responds to Daniel Golden's BusinessWeek Attack on Online For-Profit Colleges

While Daniel Golden likely believes his “Marine Can’t Recall His Course Lessons at For-Profit College” article is justice for would-be duped military personnel, the article only reveals how little he thinks of military service members. America’s service men and women are not so gullible as to be lured into proprietary education institutions with promises of free laptops and door-buster prizes; what is enticing them is education with a focused purpose that prepares them for the transition into the civilian workforce. The demands and rigors of both active and reserve duty in today’s military necessitate online colleges that provide flexible, tailored programs for their unique demands and requirements. Private sector colleges service those needs. It’s about life goals and lifestyles, not laptops.  While many veterans may want a traditional four year campus experience after completing their service to our country, others have already experienced the “growing up” part of traditional higher education while in the military, and consider spending more time hanging out with the opposite sex and drinking beer not all that appealing.

Despite the mountain of evidence to the contrary, Mr. Golden erroneously suggests degrees from online universities are less helpful in obtaining employment. Given that Mr. Golden’s chief source of information for this assertion is two headhunters, no one should be surprised at his dubious numbers. What the data show is that career placement rates are 60 percent or higher for graduates of our institutions.

Mr. Golden’s criticism of how online education is delivered is wrongheaded. Online education may have been pioneered and embraced first by private sector education, but every sector of higher education has caught on to its value. The University of Maryland University College, based at a traditional four year university, has approximately 200,000 online students. Recently the Department of Education issued a strong endorsement of online education.  To attack the delivery of higher education through online channels as troublesome is to attack the present and future of higher education itself.

Mr. Golden also brings up the issue of transfer of credit. While some students from accredited online universities can sometimes find themselves victims of discrimination by registrar office personnel, the law is clear: transfer of credit decisions cannot be based on the accreditation of the sending institution provided the accrediting agency is recognized by the Department of Education. If Mr. Golden is as deeply concerned about this problem as he is portraying himself to be, attacking the accredited institutions themselves seems awfully misplaced.

Throughout his article Mr. Golden suggests taxpayers are left holding the bill for private sector college students when that money could be better spent sending them to public institutions. Yet, research suggests taxpayers subsidize the community college student with $7 for every $1 dollar supporting a student at a private sector college or university. As a matter of basic arithmetic, is there really an argument here?

Lastly, Mr. Golden’s reporting on 90/10 is disingenuous.  Under current 90/10 laws (which are now punitive towards the very students they are intended to serve), if 90% of a student’s financial aid comes from federal dollars, then it doesn’t matter if they receive aid from other sources; they’re already over the limit.