We’ve all seen the ads, DeVry University, University of Phoenix, ITT Technical Institute… the list goes on and on. We know these schools are unique and different from a traditional 4 year university—many offer classes online, are shorter in duration and promise to help place you in your field of work after graduation. They benefit a growing population of low-income and working individuals who require the offered flexibility to further their education.

What also sets these universities a part from traditional colleges and universities is that they make a profit. All other schools, public or private, 2-year schools or 4-year schools, are non-profit organizations.

Recently, for-profit universities have come under heavy scrutiny from congress for abusing federal student aid funding. About 75% of for-profits’ school revenue comes from federal grants and loans.

What we’re seeing in the national trends among college-goers is a little alarming. Roughly 10% of people attending an institute of higher education go to for-profit colleges like DeVry. However, that 10% utilize 24% of the federal student aid. This 24% amounts to something close to $26 billion of tax payers monies that are going into the pockets of for-profit university entrepreneurs.

Frontline recently did a segment called College Inc. that interviewed “education entrepreneurs” to learn more about the world of for-profit education. It raises flags about universities’ recruitment tactics, the price of degrees and the promise of work after college.

If you are considering some form of post-secondary education, its worth your while to watch the Frontline segment! We’ll also be following and posting what congress has to say about the future of profit-generating universities so stay tuned.

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Hoping to secure a job this summer? Well, good luck. A new study shows just how discouraging the job market is for young people, “unemployment rates for both college graduates and non-graduates younger than 25 are nearly double their pre-recession levels.” This doesn’t really feel like news. For any of us out there hunting—we already know how tough the process is!

What is troubling about this information is that unemployment rates for high school and college graduates are both down—equally! This raises so many questions in my mind—mainly, why are students putting themselves into and average of 20k worth of debt for a 4-year degree?

A recent study from the Gates Foundation gives us a demographic look into this generation of college students—and college students are changing. More often than not, people enrolled in our nation’s institutions of higher ed are what policymakers call “non-traditional students.” In fact, 75% of our student population is “non-traditional.” If 75% of students enrolled are “non-traditional,” then it’s probably safe to say that traditional is no longer the norm.

Some more info to arm you with: of this group of students, 67% are working full-time while enrolled in classes while 44% work part-time. Only 14% are living on a college campus. These figures are blowing the notion of traditional schooling to bits. Bits.

This is not all to suggest that we give up on college, by any means. There is still plenty of data suggesting the more education you have, the better chances you have of getting work and also making more money once you get hired. What we’re seeing though is a REAL need for reassessment. If you’re thinking about college soon or are currently enrolled in classes, these are issues you are going to want to read up about.

For full texts of these articles, check it out here:

A Student Debt Crisis that cannot be Denied

Job Market for Class of 2010 Worst in Recent Memory

Unemployment and Educational Achievement

Lastly, Kanye West may or may not have made these similar claims about six years ago on an album called “The College Dropout.” You can also read up about that, here.

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I’ll admit, for a minute there last Sunday, March 21^st I was glued to CSPAN. It was the health care debate (and I’m using the word “debate” liberally—it was more like a verbal joust, with dems and reps haranguing insults at one another and the speaker having to cut pretty much everyone off).

The last time I was glued to CSPAN, David Banner and Master P were testifying to congress about stereotypes in hip hop. I wouldn’t make that up.

While nothing entirely tangible came from Mr. Banner’s and Mr. P’s testimonies, we got something awesome out of this more recent debate. You guessed it, a more comprehensive health care plan!

And little known to students everywhere—SAFRA was tucked away all nice and warm in the recent passage of this historic health care reform.

Education Week writes a fantastic wrap-up of everything the House vote approved last Sunday, but here are the basics:

“The bill rewrites a four-decades-old student loan program, eliminating its reliance on private lenders and uses the savings to direct $36 billion in new spending to Pell Grants for students in financial need.

… the bill would also provide more than $4 billion to historically black colleges and community colleges.

‘By moving to the federal government’s direct loan program, we will put the best interests of students first and make college loans more reliable and affordable,’ said Rep. Ruben Hinojosa, D-Texas, the chairman of a House higher education subcommittee.”

This week the Senate will vote to approve this same bill, but because it has been fast-tracked with health care, will only need 51 votes to be approved.

Looks like lower interest rates for student loans is on the horizon! Well done, Washington D.C.

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It’s happening—again. We’re talking about getting more fiscally responsible with student aid. The House passed SAFRA last September and now it’s up for action again. This week. This time around the bill looks a lot different, but if it makes it through this reconciliation process in a timely manner, it could be pushed through along with health care reform!

Currently in our country, you can apply for federal student loans to help pay for college—and the government will dole out the dough if you are eligible. However, these loans can come at a big price if you’ve got 4 years worth of debt and a crazy-high interest rate. With our old plan, the Federal Family Education Loan Program, one bank and one bank only got to distribute the loans (and subsequently, set the interest rates for repayment). Her name was Sallie Mae.

SAFRA says no to Sallie, in a big way. If the Senate is to pass this act, the government would take control over the lending rates and eliminate the third (private) party… saving us $68 billion dollars that will then be reinvested back into public education via the Pell Grant program.

Sounds like a win-win situation for everyone except the Sallie Mae Foundation, who have been profiting off of student debt for far too long.

Show your support for SAFRA. Sign this petition put together by Senator Patty Murray.

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State lawmakers are considering budget cuts that will impact thousands of college and university students across the state. LEV, the Washington Student Association and the Washington Bus are working together to urge parents and students to contact their legislators.

Watch the video of two UW students, Ashwaq and Colette, as they share their struggles with college affordability and then contact your lawmakers to urge them to protect funding for higher education. Please tell them how you, your friends, your kids and your relatives rely on Washington’s State Need Grants and/or Work Study programs in order to attend and complete college.

You may have heard that tomorrow is a national day of action on college campuses across the country. Look for rallies on the UW, Western Washington, Evergreen State College, and Seattle Community college campuses!

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The House and the Senate released their proposed budgets for this session. With Washington’s 2.8 billion dollar deficit, we expected cuts. What did grandpa used to say after all? oh that’s right, “money doesn’t grow on trees.”

Thanks, grandpa.

Here are a few lowlights from the budget cuts, but if you want to read about all the education programs that have been reduced or cut, check out this one here.

Proposed cuts from the House budget would:

-Reduce work study programs by 7.7 million dollars
-Eliminate Navigation 101, money that goes towards career and college counseling services for students in 6^th-12^th grade
-Prohibit any more spending on state need grants (current recipients still get their funds, but nobody new next year)

Proposed cuts from the Senate budget would:

-Reduce work study programs by 7.4 million dollars
-Take away 103 million dollars from Kindergarten through 4^th grade classrooms, meaning bigger class sizes and fewer teachers
-Cut college campuses across the state by 6%– regardless of whether they are a 2 year or 4 year campus. This will create disproportionate affects for our State’s higher education institutions

Money may not grow on trees, but we can definitely do something about these missing dollars. We can generate new statewide revenue. Both the House and Senate budgets proposed ways to close tax loopholes and increase minor sales taxes, but it won’t be nearly enough to fill the gaps.

Jim Dawson of Fuse puts it plainly, “you’re looking at about $4 in cuts to every $1 in new revenue sources. The package is not big enough.”

Click here to find and tell your legislators to protect funding for these critical programs.

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The Huffington Post recently launched a new blog section dedicated to college campuses and the hot-button issues young people are facing all across the nation. This immediately feels right for many, many reasons.

Primary reason, the big story this week is titled, “Majoring in Debt” and highlights the stories of young people all across the US who are swimming in student loans. Some people are pissed, some shrug their shoulders, but most have discovered that despite making the sacrifice to get themselves to school—the options post-degree are less than fulfilling. Competitive and limited job market (thanks recession), intense payment plans, and a big dose of “trapped by debt” are the prevailing sentiments here.

Students nationwide have borrowed $527 billion to go to school this year and have one student pondering “where’s our bailout?!” Excellent question, Todd. Excellent question.

Among other reasons why this new college section of Huffington Post feels right:

This site has some hilarious articles and I think we could all stand to laugh a little more.

Young people are the cultural pulse of our nation? What? It’s true. Not only can we tell you what’s hot right now, but our mastery of optimism AND cynicism makes it pretty easy to predict the future.

Example: I could imagine that in my lifetime this country will see a comprehensive, universal health care system and we will somehow develop a worldwide plan to end poverty. Then again, it won’t matter because the world will probably end in 2012. You know, apocalypse.

That leaves a LOT of room for something between those two extremes to happen. When it does, I will take credit for being partially right. Boom, future predicted. Now if I could only knock out that debt…

Here are some WWU students Majoring in Debt too:

There’s more on our Flickr

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