The Washington Post Supports Mission, Value of For-Profit Schools

From an editorial that ran on Sunday:

Government data released last week suggested that only 36 percent of for-profit students are paying back their government loans on time. The figure was on a par with other institutions that educate a high proportion of low-income students; the University of the District of Columbia, for example, was said to have a 33 percent repayment rate, and Bowie State University, 22 percent. Yet the new regulations would limit federal loans only to students attending for-profit schools whose repayment average falls below a given threshold.

The truth, though, is that for all schools the numbers are misleading. They count as deadbeats students who have restructured their loans, with government approval, to pay only interest for the first few years, until their earnings can be expected to grow, and who remain up to date on their restructured payment schedules. It makes no sense to retroactively punish schools, and their potential students, for practices that the Education Department has encouraged until now.

If the data released Friday are used without further refinement, the effect will be to deprive many working students of their best option for higher education -- and to worsen the national problem that Mr. Obama has dedicated himself to solving.

Read the entire piece here. And yes, issues of any conflict of interest regarding the Washington Post's ownership are addressed.