All across the country, people are waking up to the abusive practices of for-profit colleges, which take $33 billion a year in taxpayer money, much of it for poor quality programs that leaves students deep in debt and unemployed. The newest bombshell is an in-depth report from Chris Parker in The Village Voice highlighting students and employees who lived first-hand the deceptions of these institutions:
Bobby Ruffin Jr. was only 14 when a recruiter from Ashford University called. The Birmingham, Michigan, boy thought he’d clicked on a link promising help finding money for college. It was actually just a lead …
Some Members of Congress are stepping up to increase oversight over the for-profit college industry, which is heavily subsidized by taxpayers but which continues to abuse our veterans and other students.
As a part of this effort, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) sought to report about the salaries of top executives at these companies. Keep in mind that more than 86 percent of the funds for 30 major for-profit colleges studied by Congress come from taxpayers. So that means that these execs are essentially living large on the public dole.
One major company, Kaplan, which is owned by the Washington Post, refused …
Two more major companies have joined the exodus of corporations, organizations, and politicians fleeing the American Legislative Exchange Council, the corporate front group responsible for pushing Stand Your Ground and voter ID laws in states across the country. Yesterday, General Motors and Walgreens confirmed that they will no longer continue their membership in ALEC, according to Common Cause. They join at least 25 other corporations in dumping ALEC, thanks in large part to pressure from activist groups.
Meanwhile, the organization had its 39th annual conference in Salt Lake City earlier this week, certainly a less festive event than in years past …
One of the biggest rip-offs the U.S. government enforces is a ban on cheap pharmaceutical drugs from Canada. Americans are barred from buying perfectly safe pharmaceutical drugs from Canada that can be 20 to 80 percent cheaper than American drugs.
Conservative organizations like the Cato Institute and progressive lawmakers like former Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) have long advocated for ending this ban and having free trade in pharmaceutical drugs. It would mean cheaper drugs for Americans and more funding for drugmakers and a health care system that can better regulate costs.
But the American pharmaceutical industry is incredibly powerful, and uses its …
On Sunday’s CNN “State of the Union,” Mitt Romney senior advisor Ed Gillespie explained how a second Obama Administration would reward its rich friends: “If you’re a political donor to Barack Obama, you’re going to do fine, because you’re going to get a payoff.”
This statement was pure hypocrisy: “a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not.” Because, although the Obama Administration has indeed sometimes cozied up to special interests, it is Mitt Romney’s policies that are audaciously skewed to favor his campaign donors. And Ed Gillespie’s regular job, when not advising Romney, …
President Obama made what should be an uncontroversial statement the other day. He told a Spanish language television station that Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez does not pose a serious threat to the United States.
Unless flamboyant language is considered a threat, there’s little to argue with Obama’s statement. Venezuela has not engaged in or threatened to engage in any actual armed hostilities with the United States (the U.S. is suspected to have been a major force behind a 2002 military coup against Chavez), is a major U.S. trading partner, and has a tiny military budget (as …
Last month, we covered how the National Govenors Association (NGA) — a bipartisan policy organization for the nation’s state governors — has jumped into bed with the predatory for-profit education industry, taking thousands of dollars from for-profit college and education technology interests, both of which depend on government funding.
Starting this Thursday, the NGA will hold its annual summer meeting in Williamsburg, Virginia. As the Associated Press reports, this multi-million dollar event will be “mostly closed” to the public, but it will feature sponsorship by scores of corporations seeking access to the nation’s governors and their staffs.
Altria, the parent …
Imagine you could get pharmaceutical drugs for twenty to eighty percent cheaper. If you’re someone with multiple prescriptions, that could save you thousands of dollars every year.
The thing is, you can. Or, you could, if you were allowed to import safe pharmaceutical drugs from Canada. But you’re not, because the U.S. government bars you from doing so. Why? Mostly because the drug industry lobby — led by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) — opposes this sort of free trade that would lower drug prices (and Pharma’s profits). PhRMA even strong-armed President Obama into opposing reimportation thanks to its …
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