August 1, 2012

For-Profit College Lures 14-Year-Old, Dumps Him, Sticks Him With The Bill

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
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August 1, 2012

Georgia Voters Of Both Parties Revolt Against Corruption

Imagine if lobbyists could give virtually anything they wanted to lawmakers, ranging from a gift basket of cookies to a Mercedes Benz. This isn’t some dark fairy tale. In Georgia, it’s reality. Lobbyists can give virtually whatever gift they want to lawmakers. But in recent month, a rowdy coalition of tea partiers and progressives have
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August 1, 2012

Former Army Captain Says If Hospitals Behaved Like For-Profit Colleges, Execs Would Be In Jail

At a press conference Monday, Sens. Tom Harkin (D-IA), flanked by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), unveiled a new report looking at the abuses against students by the for-profit college industry, which is largely subsidized by the taxpayer with few strings attached. In recent months, abuses against veterans in particular have come
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August 1, 2012

The Washington Post Won’t Tell Congress How Much Money Kaplan’s CEO Makes

    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.
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July 31, 2012

LOL Campaign Finance

Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis are out with a new movie that looks like it will be a hilarious skewer of the modern political campaign. The Campaign, out on August 10, gets one thing a bit too right — campaign finance. Watch this clip…so funny because it’s so true.

July 31, 2012

LINKS: Destroy Campaign Finance Regulation?

The Atlantic: The Only Way to Fix Campaign-Finance Regulation Is to Destroy It Over the last four decades, the campaign finance system has become a Rube Goldberg-esque contraption of complex, senseless, and indecipherable regulations. To fix it, new “reforms” (a.k.a. regulations) are routinely proposed, and some are even passed — such as the McCain-Feingold Bill
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July 31, 2012

For-Profit College Recruiter: Goal Was To “Demoralize Potential Applicants” And Get “Asses In Classes”

Yesterday at Sen. Tom Harkin’s press conference on the release of his new report on the predatory nature of the for-profit college industry, one of the most illuminating testimonies came not from the senator or his colleagues, but from a former active and knowing participant in the abusive system. Laura Brozek worked for ITT Technical
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July 30, 2012

Harkin, Colleagues Say For-Profit Colleges Squander Billions and Destroy Dreams

At a Capitol Hill press conference today, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) released a blockbuster four-volume report based on his two-year investigation of the for-profit college industry. I’ve already discussed the findings of the report, which details how many of the big for-profit schools engage in fraudulent conduct, offer high-priced, low-quality programs, and leave many students
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