Young people today are desperately seeking places to train for productive careers. To do so, many pursue post-secondary degrees at all costs. And really who can blame them, its not as though there is a vast array of great jobs, apprenticeships or paying internships to chose from. So back to school they go. As part of the credit bubble over the past decade, the US government underwrote more and more student loans so more students could fund more school costs. Naturally admissions skyrocketed and banks and for-profit-schools reaped exponential profits as incentives stimulated quantity rather than quality education.
The students however are not faring well–coming out of the process worse for wear in many cases, with crippling debt (which can’t be expunged in bankruptcy), questionable credentials, and still poor job prospects. The below story on DeVry’s Ross School of Medicine looks at the cozy loop that delivers hopeful students to a life of debt-servitude.
If the west is to get back on track, we have to stop eating our young at the alter of perpetually higher profits for the status quo of larger, established corporations (who have enjoyed record earnings over the past few years some 70% above the long term average, but then claim they cannot afford to pay anything to student interns working for on the job training.)
DeVry Inc., which owns two for-profit medical schools in the Caribbean, is accepting hundreds of students who were rejected by U.S. medical colleges. Students at DeVry’s Ross University School of Medicine and American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine amass more debt than their U.S. counterparts. Although neither AUC nor Ross is accredited by the body that approves medical programs in the U.S., students at both schools are eligible for loans issued by the U.S. Education Department. Here is a direct video link.
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