(07-17-2013 10:03 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote: I'm not a fan of for-profit educational institutions in general - people end up paying really high private tuition with heavy indebtedness when they'd get better instruction and more transferable credits at their local community college for a fraction of the cost.
However, it's a bit disingenuous for anyone in college football to be disturbed in this instance when they gladly play their national championship game and will have an annual CFP bowl in a for-profit college sponsored stadium (University of Phoenix Stadium).
It's a thorny issue because the lines are getting fuzzier all the time. A number of schools who are good standing Division I members (even FBS members) offer some online and off-site degree programs in partnership with for-profit companies.
My alma mater is currently exploring a private/public partnership to add a medical school. Arkansas has moved from 48th in physicians per capita to 49th but the state government lacks the funds (or more accurately political will) to increase medical school capacity.
The existing medical school (UAMS) is based in Little Rock and wanted to add a campus in Fayetteville. The only way they got it approved was 1) It could only teach 3rd and 4th year medical and pharmacy students (never caught the justification), nursing classes were limited to Masters and PhD programs (to protect the nursing school at UA Fayetteville) and could offer associates and bachelors in radiologic imaging. 2) The facilities had to be privately funded.
With no political backing to expand the number of physicians offering a program in a private/public partnership to avoid most opposition is the only real option. Right now the preliminary study indicates tuition will be higher than UAMS but lower than private medical schools because using Arkansas State's facilities lowers overhead significantly and several rural hospitals have indicated they would offer scholarships to reduce tuition to the level of UAMS for students indicating an interest in rural health and loan forgiveness programs for grads who will take rural jobs.
We've got a doozy of a state. One of UAMS rural health clinics was closed and moved to another town 30 miles away because local doctors complained to their legislators that the clinics were "stealing" their patients even though they won't see anyone with private insurance or income above a fraction of the poverty line.
Given that environment I have a hard time expressing a blanket opposition to for-profit schools even though University of Phoenix gave a masters degree to my local mayor who makes Honey Boo Boo sound educated (and hired her to teach, no connection to the city ending the practice of capping the benefit for freshmen and sophomore classes at the level the nearby public juco charges and junior, senior, and masters level classes at the cost charged by nearby Arkansas-Little Rock
)