Why I don’t trust corporations
The usual justification that you hear supporting for-profit higher education is that it serves people who are not able to benefit from the non-profit sector. This is of course highly laudable, and it’s only a fortunate coincidence that the CEO gets to take home $20.5M in a year.
Let that sink in for a second. $20.5M in a single year. For comparison, Gordon Gee, who is often held up as the primary exemplar of runaway compensation in the non-profit sector, takes home $1.6M a year in total compensation [Wikipedia].
Other highlights from the article:
Bridgepoint spends $700 per student per year on instruction, but $2,700 on recruiting, while $1,500 is generated as profit. That sounds like an awesome educational model to me.
The 2-year student persistence rate is 37% in bachelors’ programs.
There’s even more in the article, including a truly shocking imbalance between recruiting and job-placement staff (I’ll let you guess which way the imbalance tips).
And people ask me why I don’t trust corporations to do the right thing.