Distasteful

I've been trying to figure out why the University of Phoenix story bothers me so much, and I think I've come to an honest realization: at the heart of my disdain is the feeling that knowledge and learning should be freely acquired rights for all people. It strikes me as utterly distasteful that a profit can be made off these things like other on commodities. They're not shoes, and they shouldn't be treated as such.

Some would suggest these feelings are just the effete snobbery of a privileged individual. If someone wants to pay for an academic credential, the argument goes, who am I to stop them? A July 2008 Reason article came to much the same conclusion:

There are legitimate criticisms of the university. But the education establishment's hostility to the institution often lies elsewhere, in an attitude toward for-profit higher ed that is essentially an aversion to change and commerce, the same snobbish disdain directed at payday lenders, providers of adjustable rate mortgages, and inner-city fast-food vendors. Few sins are less forgivable in polite society than offering poor people products they actively seek.

The problem with this line of reasoning, besides its obvious failure of subtlety, is that the items listed alongside for-profit higher education as being repugnant (but ultimately acceptable as commodities) are objectively bad things. Payday lenders prey on people living month-to-month; no wealthy person would ever submit to their usurious rates. Adjustable rate mortgages don't seem to be working out too well either for the borrowers or society at-large. Fast food has caloric, fat, and toxin contents that are simply bad for human bodies. These are not the opinions of a high-minded liberal; they are facts determined objectively by experts.

Unfortunately, our public institutions of higher learning have neither the tools to show whether or if they're superior, nor the moral high ground. As "public" higher education becomes increasingly less reliant on public funds, less willing to devote those funds to teaching and learning, and more invested in high-revenue sports, they slowly begin to look more and more like for-profit education institutions. Worse, the for-profit institutions are not stealing "customers" from public institutions through price mechanisms. Public four- and two-year institutions are often cheaper than for-profit alternatives. Rather, the for-profits are gaining market share by offering more night, weekend, and online opportunities to a group of students who are busy during traditional schooling hours. These are real areas where public institutions could learn from the for-profits.

In other areas experts in higher ed have ample evidence to make their case against for-profits. As the single largest recipient of federal student loan money, the University of Phoenix has an official graduation rate of about 15 percent. This number is so low partly because they actively and aggressively recruit students who are often vulnerable academically and/or financially (for more on their recruiting tactics, check out pages 9-13 of this .pdf file from a lawsuit filed against them earlier this month). The business model of for-profit higher education institutions relies on federal student financial aid for the majority of its revenue, which means it's all of our business how that money gets spent.

It's a flawed argument that demand for a certain product automatically leads to its rightness. Just because one can make a profit off something does not mean one should.