The New Poor In Hard Times, Lured Into Trade School and Debt

[kpete]

Source: New York Times

The New Poor
In Hard Times, Lured Into Trade School and Debt

One fast-growing American industry has become a conspicuous beneficiary of the recession: for-profit colleges and trade schools.

At institutions that train students for careers in areas like health care, computers and food service, enrollments are soaring as people anxious about weak job prospects borrow aggressively to pay tuition that can exceed $30,000 a year.

But the profits have come at substantial taxpayer expense while often delivering dubious benefits to students, according to academics and advocates for greater oversight of financial aid. Critics say many schools exaggerate the value of their degree programs, selling young people on dreams of middle-class wages while setting them up for default on untenable debts, low-wage work and a struggle to avoid poverty. And the schools are harvesting growing federal student aid dollars, including Pell grants awarded to low-income students.

“If these programs keep growing, you’re going to wind up with more and more students who are graduating and can’t find meaningful employment,” said Rafael I. Pardo, a professor at Seattle University School of Law and an expert on educational finance. “They can’t generate income needed to pay back their loans, and they’re going to end up in financial distress.”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/14/business/14schools.html

[opihimoimoi]

1. The PAIN Falls Mainly on the PLAIN.....

[Wilms]

2. Call NOW! And get your NEW LIFE started TODAY!

:puke:

Just today I was poking fun at the radio ads. But as your post points out, there's nothing funny about it.

[defendandprotect]

3. Unregulated capitalism is merely organized crime . . .

Entrapment --

[1776Forever]

4. So true - And how many of us have went back so we didn't have to pay the astronomical costs?

I know I tried and didn't finish in time before the bankruptcy hit our family. Now I am trying to keep the wolves at bay! Damn what a mess! I was going to look up the Student Loan portion of the Health Care Bill that is going to go through when it passes. I found this:

March 12, 2010, 7:05 pm Student Loan Provisions May Ease Passage of Health Care Bill
By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/12/student-loan-provisions-may-ease-passage-of-health-care-bill/

Many House Democrats reacted enthusiastically on Friday to the word that a proposed overhaul of student loan programs would be included with major health care legislation in an expedited budget package to be offered in Congress.

The student loan overhaul would end government subsidies to private, commercial student lenders that have profited handsomely by making virtually risk-free loans using taxpayer money. The education bill would also redirect billions of dollars in savings from ending the payments to an array of popular education programs, including expanded Pell grants for low-income students.

As a result, some supporters of the health care bill said they were confident the financial aid measure would help generate votes for the overall package.

(more at link)

..............

Still don't know if it helps people who are not able to pay their loans now.

Hope so!:shrug:

[Newest Reality]

5. I expect to see a burdgeoning multiplicity of methods to pick

the proverbial carcass of what is left. What with "we buy your gold", loan shark paycheck loans, and the rest, its going to be growing industry as the vultures sweep low to clean our bones dry.

There is still some big profit to be made off of rapidly growing numbers of disenfranchised in this, the first chapter of the greatest debacle of all time, ey?

[JoeyTrib]

6. Recommend

This or the military.

[mrmpa]

7. in debt and on public assistance

I work with a man who sits on his city's urban housing board. He says that at least 80% of applicants show debt for having attended but not completing course work at these types of "schools".

[Manifestor_of_Light]

8. Learn a trade at your local community college instead!!

Much better and cheaper!!!

IGNORE the places that advertise--MTI, The Art Institutes, ITT Tech, etc.

They are a rip off.