The Rise Of For-profit Colleges And Student Loan Debt – Stephanie Rigg Cellini, Stephanie Rigg Cellini Non-Presidential Senior Fellow – Governance Studies, Brown Center on Education Policy @ Sricellini Rajiv Darolia, Rajiv Darolia Associate Professor, Martin School of Public Policy – University of Kentucky – Vanderbilt University
In recent years, the for-profit college sector has faced regulatory pressure The US Department of Education (ED) recently investigated and sanctioned two large national for-profit chains, Corinthian College and ITT Tech. As a result, both companies filed for bankruptcy, closing hundreds of campuses across the country and leaving thousands of students without educational opportunities. Additionally, many for-profit colleges will lose access to federal student aid and possibly close further due to new “gainful employment” (GA) regulations. So what happens to current and prospective students when for-profit colleges close underperforming or lose federal student aid? We will address this topic in a new working paper
The Rise Of For-profit Colleges And Student Loan Debt

Money is important to prospective students deciding when, and where, to attend college The federal government provides large amounts of funding to programs such as means-tested Pell Grants and subsidized student loans to encourage and support low-income college students. However, these programs are not available to students of every college Colleges must meet a set of conditions in order to provide federal student aid to their students
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Until the current GEO regulations, student performance-based requirements depended on the student loan cohort default rate (CDR)—the percentage of a college’s former students who defaulted on their federal student loans during a given period. CDR legislation was enacted in the late 1980s in response to a higher education environment that was similar to today’s setting, with an increase in for-profit college enrollment, student loan defaults, and concerns about educational attainment. Schools
As shown in the figure, the share of Pell Grant recipients increased significantly between 1980 and 1988. During the 1990s, the CDR regulations were greatly reduced and enrollment of federal aid recipients declined. Many colleges in this area are closed During the 1990s, more than 1,200 for-profit institutions were sanctioned.
Few would deny the need to protect vulnerable students from colleges where they are unlikely to succeed However, while not-for-profit colleges may offer unique pathways to college for underserved students, past and present regulatory actions have the potential to limit access to higher education by limiting the number of options available to students. Consequently, a key question is whether students who perform poorly at an accredited, for-profit college will attend another college or drop out altogether.
In new research, we examine the impact of CDR legislation in the late 1980s and early 1990s and estimate the impact of federal student aid losses on two-year college enrollment. We observed effects on enrollment between accredited schools and nearby, accredited institutions that served similar students. We focus on students receiving means-tested federal Pell Grants because these students may be vulnerable to changes in their access to financial aid.
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Our research shows that when for-profit institutions are threatened with the loss of federal aid, enrollment of Pell Grant recipients at those institutions declines, as does enrollment at other local non-accredited colleges. While more research is needed to clarify the reasons for this negative spillover, it is likely that—as in today—schools as a whole are suffering the ripple effects of federal cuts placed on individual schools.
However, we find evidence that a decline in for-profit sector enrollment after a sanction does not lead to a decline in educational attainment—increased enrollment in local public institutions offsets the decline in for-profit enrollment. We also find suggestive evidence that a reduction in federal student loan debt and default in this area results in students moving from low-performing colleges to low-cost community colleges.
Along with the potential future for for-profit college closings, the new GEO is expected to displace many students, as ED estimates that the regulation will affect approximately 1,400 programs (99 percent of which are at for-profit colleges) and 840,000 students will lose aid. For-profit colleges may pose particular problems for students who rely heavily on aid because they are more likely to come from low-income backgrounds and less likely to expect financial support from family. In addition to financial constraints, for-profit colleges are also important in policymaking because they disproportionately serve first-generation college students, have served in the military, or identify as ethnic or racial minorities.

Our research indicates that when students who perform poorly at for-profit colleges lose access to aid, these students can and do find programs that fit their needs in the public sector. And, with this shift of students across sectors, student loan outcomes improve Therefore, the average cost of attendance is lower and job market prospects are similar (or better) to public markets.
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Limiting federal student aid to low-performing for-profit colleges could lead to better outcomes for students and government loan programs without harming access to higher education.
We caution that we do not appear to be concerned with the timing and context of capacity constraints at low-cost competitive public institutions, as public institutions are able to accommodate students who change sectors in response to federal grants. But, states have invested in community colleges over time Therefore, to ensure that students can access higher education during for-profit college regulations, we recommend increasing public support for community colleges and other high-performing educational options.
[1] See, for example, Stephanie Rigg Cellini and Nicholas Turner (2016). “Beneficial? Assessing the earnings and earnings of for-profit college students using administrative data ” NBER Working Paper No. 22287. The Centennial Foundation takes your data security and privacy seriously. That’s why we want you to know that, when you visit our website, we use technologies like cookies to collect anonymous information so that we can better understand and serve our audience. For more information, see our full privacy policy
The arrival of a new administration and a new Congress in 2021 promises a better outlook for higher education. For those looking at the for-profit college industry, it also brings hope that students can be better protected from predatory schools. Barack Obama attempted to rein in the excesses of this sector — a sector that by 2012 had ballooned to more than $1 trillion in student debt. Yet Donald Trump’s administration has made several gains in protecting students from predatory schools. . Many analysts expect Joe Biden to correct the mistakes of the past four years and pick up where Obama left off.
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Regardless of regulatory issues, predatory colleges cause permanent damage. If America is going to continue to allow for-profit colleges, the federal government needs to truly protect prospective students by creating effective safeguards to protect them from schools with harmful practices. Moreover, the government needs to pay constant attention to those guards Regulation must evolve as does the market of higher education: for-profit schools have demonstrated a consistent ability to innovate new abusive practices.
Evidence of bad actors in for-profit higher education and the damage they are causing is not hard to find The Centennial Foundation and other advocates have spent considerable time and resources collecting and analyzing quantitative evidence of the bad practices of these predatory colleges. The number is staggering: For every tuition dollar it collects, the average for-profit college spends just 29 cents on student instruction, compared to 84 cents at private colleges and $1.42 at public universities. The United States currently has significant student loan debt. has skyrocketed to $1.7 trillion, and students and former students at for-profit colleges hold an increased proportion of that debt — given the possibility of carrying debt but no degree and how they fare in the job market. A higher percentage of student loan defaults compared to their public and non-profit college counterparts.
Despite these grim statistics, students choose to enroll in for-profit colleges In a society riddled with inequality, where a higher education has become increasingly essential to career success, for-profit schools advertise an attractive opportunity to earn valuable credentials on a flexible schedule. Therefore, in order to improve the situation, it is important for policy makers to understand, not just the magnitude of the profit problem.

This report presents some personal stories of students who have attended for-profit schools A qualitative research illuminates and provides data that quantitative data has already collected Although qualitative research data on college costs or graduate debt levels are not generally available, it
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