Mailbag

Mailbag: A Student Loan Fiasco in Kentucky

Stephen Burd — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 17:45:00 -0400

Last week, we ran a post critiquing The New York Times' coverage of the collapse of a popular student loan forgiveness program in Kentucky that was designed to encourage students to become school teachers. We credited the Times for bringing national attention to the struggles of thousands of newly-minted teachers who were left in the lurch when the Kentucky Higher Education Student Loan Corporation (KHESLC), the state's nonprofit student loan agency, decided to pull the plug on its "Best in Class" program. But we took the newspaper to task for missing the real story: how officials at the Kentucky loan agency had set the program up for failure by financing it with funds it had improperly obtained by engaging in a risky scheme to overcharge the federal government tens of millions of dollars.

Since then, we have been overwhelmed by the responses we have received on the post. Nearly 100 Kentucky teachers have written to us, explaining the hardships they have faced since the loan agency shut down the program. Today, we thought we'd put a human face on the scandal by printing excerpts from comments we received from the teachers.

Drawn to Public Service by a Promise

The stories they tell are remarkably similar -- about how they were drawn to public service by the promise of having their student loans forgiven. Most of these people, many of whom left other lines of work to take part in the program, say that they never would have been able to consider entering such a low-paying field without the help that the Kentucky loan agency [also known as the Student Loan People (SLP)] offered them:

This promise of loan forgiveness is one major reason I decided to enter the education field, leaving behind a higher paying job in order to teach and make a difference in lives of students in Kentucky. Now I am struggling to make ends meet, and I am forced to consider returning to my previous line of work in order to pay off my student loans. It is a sad time for education in Kentucky. ("Best in Class Article," Shelly)

The financial burden of paying off loans for a life of service to today's youth, with pay that is well below what the standard should be for educating tomorrow's leaders is heart wrenching. I entered into this program with good FAITH and would have been unable to fulfill the financial obligations without this program and would therefore been unable to pursue a teaching career. I am now left with such debt that with teacher's salary I will have to take drastic measures to survive financially. ("Thank you for the truth," Jo)

I was financially stable with my head well above water until I went back to school for a degree in special education. I NEVER would have gone back if this loan had not been available. Kentucky was so desperate for teachers that they offered this to get us all in there and then left us high and dry on our minimal salaries. I don't have an extra $492 a month for the next 9.9 years to pay for their false promises and budgeting mistakes. ("Best in Class," hjdobs01)

Disputing the Loan Agency's Spin

Many of the teachers expressed outrage over recent statements KHESLC officials have made, denying that they ever promised borrowers that funding for the loan forgiveness benefit was guaranteed. Had they known that the program was in such a precarious state, the teachers say, they would have definitely thought twice before taking part in it:

I, like so many other KY teachers, was told in very clear and persuasive terms that as a special education teacher in KY loans taken out through the Student Loan People would be completely and totally repaid after five years...I spoke several times with the SLP office, the financial aid office at the University, and past borrowers who assured me that their loans had been paid off just as promised. ("What's ‘Best'," DanaKYTeacher)

The Student Loan People promised me that they would repay my loans, and there was never any doubt that in my mind. As a matter of fact, I called more than 5 times and made sure that I spoke to different people each time, just to make sure that I understood the program. ("Student Loan People," Rebecca Broughton)

My wife and I both went back to school with the understanding that SLP would pay the loans off over a five year period. We checked many times, we called all the right people, we verified that we completely understood the program, and we joined the Best in Class program. What is CLEAR now is that we have all been duped! ("SLP," Bill)

Struggling to Make Payments

The teachers also wrote about the hardship they are now facing being deeply in debt with loans that they never expected to have to pay off:

I am now thousands and thousands in debt, thanks to the Best in Class people. I am 57 years old and left retail after 35 years to help Kentucky's children. I never would have put my family in such a precarious position financially if it weren't for the promises made by the people who lent this money.("Kentucky Loans to Teachers," Eddie Ginsburg)

I left the business world to go back my first love -- teaching. I am now a special education teacher who specializes in children with functional mental disabilities in a rural school district. I love my job and my kids -- but since I am 58 years old, I will have to back over $25,000 in loans over the next 10 years. This means that if for any reason I have to retire before I am almost 70, I will have to make these huge payments out of my Social Security or school retirement check. I won't be able to afford to retire. ("Best in Class Fiasco," Diana Shepherd)

With the cost of living, rent, car payment, insurance, medical bills and undergraduate loans that are still being paid for, with an additional $300 a month payment it would be almost impossible for me to keep myself up, let alone get married and try to start a family with someone else...The people at the top that make the decisions to put a stop to programs such as this have no outlook on the hardships that they are putting those that offer such a valuable service to the commonwealth. ("Best in Class, Best in Lying," Brandon Hibbard)

A Lack of Political Will

The teachers said they were particularly disappointed with the response they have received so far from the political leaders who are supposed to represent them in the state legislature and the U.S. Congress. While many wrote in about this, one educator was particularly eloquent in describing his disbelief and disgust:

The incredible aspect of this whole ordeal has been how unwilling so many politicians are here to help. Everyone one always campaigns on the value of education and how much they support the need to provide the best for our children, yet KY state legislators, KY congressmen, KY's governor, and KY's attorney general have all done their very best to distance themselves from this issue...KY teachers have been ethically, financially, politically, and legally wronged; if politicians can't step up to the plate and do something meaningful in regard to their promises and the future of KY's educational system, then what should any of us really expect from them? ("Failure of Promises," Bryan)

Another commenter, who is not a Kentucky teacher, expressed a similar view:

I would think Kentucky delegates in Congress would be all over this story putting pressure on the state and federal level to fix this problem...They would set themselves apart better protecting their own constituents who were duped by bad policy and bad decisions on the part of the lender. ("Great Job," Budget Watch 64)

So what can be done to help these teachers and avoid similar debacles in the future? We'd love to hear what you think. Please send in any thoughts or suggestions you may have for remedying this situation.

And as always, we appreciate all the comments we have received on this topic and others. Keep them coming.

Mailbag: Getting the Runaround from Sallie Mae

Ed Policy — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 19:15:00 -0400

As the student loan industry mobilizes to battle the Obama administration over the President's plan to eliminate the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program, we are starting to hear a lot from lenders about the superior customer service that the bank-based program allegedly provides. "Direct Loans are simply not subject to the same quality of service," Marcia Sullivan, director of government relations at the Consumer Bankers Association, recently told The New York Times.

Are these claims true? We really can't say since there haven't been any empirical studies comparing the level of customer service offered by the two federal student loan programs. But we are skeptical about the quality of service private lenders are providing, because of comments we have received over the past two years from federal and private student loan borrowers who have complained about their dealings with Sallie Mae, the nation's largest student loan company.

Given the heated battle that is just getting started on Capitol Hill, we thought we'd share some of these comments with you.

We have heard, for instance, from many borrowers who complained that they could not get straight answers from Sallie Mae customer service representatives about how much they owed. One such comment came from a father who had co-signed his son's private loans:

When my son's loans were coming due, he called to find out about payment schedules, and a payment book, which never arrived. He finally got a notice that he was past due in payments. He talked to several people at Sallie Mae, and got several different amounts that were due. Finally got someone to state that they would send out payment coupons, which they did. He made the first payment, and then, his own fault, forgot about mailing the next payment until 2 days before due. He called Sallie Mae, and they had a totally different amount that was due, other than was on the payment coupon, and told him that he was late with his payments..... Not the case, we have canceled checks to prove otherwise. I called them, spent 3 hours on the phone, talked to about 5 different people, and got about 5 different amounts that were due... then I got the song and dance that if I paid them $377 on that day, everything would be caught up.... so I made the payment... never got a corrected payment booklet, or coupon, so we called again to make phone payment, and got ANOTHER DIFFERENT amount that was due... I cannot understand why they cannot give us a clear amount of payment that is due, and why it changes with each person that we talk to. (Scammed, February 6, 2009)

Others also complained of being asked to pay fees for services that were not rendered:

This past summer I knew I was about to have a lot of financial difficulties. I was 8 months pregnant, did not have a job because I had just moved into a new area...and well no one wants to hire someone who is clearly pregnant (sad but true). Anyway, I knew that I was not going to be able to make payments much longer on my private loans until at least after my child was born and when I was employed again.

So I called to speak with someone over the phone to make sure that there wasn't something they could do to help me. I was told by the rep that if I paid $100 ($50 for each private loan - I had two) that I would be able to put my loans in forbearance. I actually advised the representative at that time that my online account showed that I was ineligible for forbearance. The representative assured me that this was not the case and if I paid this fee I would not owe another payment until December 27th, 2008. I even asked her several times to make sure we were on the same page that I would not owe anything until late December. She agreed with me each time.

Anyway, I went ahead and paid their fee and thought this would take care of my problem until December. I figured this would give me enough time to sort through some things and hopefully be able to start paying them again.

Well the next month rolls around and it shows that I still owe a payment. I called and asked why my loans were not put into forbearance when I had paid their $100 fee to do so. The representative told me that the payment only brought me current on my account and my loans WERE NOT put into forbearance like they had told me they would. Then she instructed me to pay ANOTHER $100 to put them into the so-called forbearance that I am pretty sure would have not happened for a second time. I kept explaining to them that I had already paid this fee and I would NOT be paying it again but it was like they could not understand that concept at all. (Private Loan Forbearance, January 12, 2009)

Another commenter, who was having trouble making payments on her loans because she was suffering from a debilitating illness, wrote in about "the runaround" she experienced trying to get the company to work out an affordable repayment plan:

I contacted Sallie Mae every step of the way and always got the runaround or a different story from them every time I called. They lost records of my communications. They would promise one thing and then renege. My $24K loan suddenly was hit with late payment fees and penalties almost equal to the amount of the original principle...With every plea for help, and always with the promise of paying back, I was met with a door slammed in my face. (Another Response to Ex-Loan Huckster, October 31, 2008)

Others accused the company of taking actions specifically to drive up the cost of their loans. One borrower, who had taken out a total of $130,000 in federal and private loans to attend the Savannah College of Art and Design, wrote:

I know that borrowing that money comes to be my fault to some extent -- but what isn't my fault are the company policies and procedures of Sallie Mae. They have lost NUMEROUS payments of mine, and they have tacked on $1,000s in mysterious processing fees of which I can not get an answer from their "reps" as to what they are. (Not Full Sail but SCAD, March 2, 2009)

Others simply questioned the company's competence:

I do not have federal loans through Sallie Mae. I have only private loans through Sallie Mae. I pay about $400 on these loans monthly, which is more than the minimum amount required...

But yesterday I received a phone call from Sallie Mae saying I am late on my federal loan payment. Again, I have no federal loan with them. Yet they seem to think I have a $10K federal loan at 7.22% variable interest rate in addition to my private loans. NOTE: This interest rate would be above my interest rate on my private student loans.

I completed graduate school in 2003. I have not been back to school and I have no plans to go back to school. I have been paying my private Sallie Mae loans at a rate that will have them paid off ahead of (Sallie Mae's) schedule.

This is absolutely lunacy, especially when Sallie Mae touts its "borrower benefits"; its customer service and cries poverty to Congress at every opportunity. (I do not have federal loans, June 15, 2008)

Now this is obviously not a scientific survey. And we're not saying that customer service in the Direct Loan program is perfect. But when we have received as many complaints as we have about the predominant student loan company in the country, we've got to wonder whether touting the loan industry' s customer service capabilities is really going to fly.

As always, we appreciate the comments we have received on this topic and others. Please keep them coming.

Mailbag: Borrowers in Desperate Straits

Ed Policy — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 17:15:00 -0500

At Higher Ed Watch, we have long opposed the idea of the government bailing out private lenders who have engaged in predatory private student loan practices. Our view, as we have said before, is that student loan companies should have to bear responsibility for the consequences of pushing high cost private loan debt on high-risk borrowers. After all, for years, they gladly raked in profits from these loans.

Over the past six months, we have heard from scores of financially distressed borrowers who are outraged that the government would rush to the aid of private student loan providers without offering any relief to them. With U.S. Treasury Department officials preparing to start carrying out this month their plans for reviving the credit markets to help provide capital and liquidity to lenders so they can continue making high-cost private loans, we feel that it is our duty to make sure these voices are heard.

Typically in our mailbags, we provide a sample of comments that have been submitted on a given subject. But as we sifted through the dozens of comments we have received in recent months, one particularly caught our eye because it perfectly illustrates the human costs of a system that has left so many students vulnerable to abuse from predatory lenders and unscrupulous trade schools.

Like many of the distressed borrowers we hear from, this commenter says that he was duped into taking out high-interest private loans by aggressive trade school recruiters who misled him about the terms and conditions on these loans, as well as the quality of the academic programs their schools were offering:

I have attended two schools -- ITT and Westwood. When signing up they told me that I would need a Sallie Mae loan to cover what my grants didn't and that once I completed school that I would be making payments of around $50 a month for each loan.

After attending I didn't feel like I was receiving the education that I was paying for in these loans. The reason why I say this is because my 4th grade son was bringing home assignments that mirrored the ones I was receiving from ITT and Westwood. I was getting A's on all my assignments without any studying because it was so easy my son could do it. If you are going to pay over $75,000+ in loans when you complete a school shouldn't it actually teach you something??

After withdrawing from these schools, he says that these loans have become an inescapable burden for him and his family. The loan giant Sallie Mae, he says, has been inflexible and unwilling to help him find ways to make repayment easier.

Ultimately, this commenter has paid a heavy price for his decision to go back to school to try and better his life. His situation, he says, has become increasingly desperate:

Until we started going to receive food from the church last winter, my family had to all live in one room in the back of our trailer with no water, gas, or phone (can only pay electric on $120 a month). For heat we had a space heater that could only heat one room. My wife was late term high risk pregnancy at the time. We lived on ramen noodles and what the local church was able to help supply with their food assistance.

It's bad when a government-protected institution puts money ahead of the welfare of its citizens. After the winter was over Sallie Mae collected around $3000+ of family assistance and it sure hasn't shown up as credit on my loans.

As policymakers move forward with their plans to help private loan providers, we believe that it is absolutely essential that they look for ways to help private loan borrowers who find themselves in dire straits. Borrowers with unmanageable debt loads may not be able to hire high-priced lobbyists or lavish lawmakers with generous PAC contributions, but that doesn't mean that they should be left out of the discussions.

As always, we appreciate the comments we have received on this topic and others. Please keep them coming.

Mailbag: Private Loan Borrowers Speak Out

Ed Policy — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 18:00:00 -0400

Yesterday, we expressed our strong opposition to a Bush administration proposal that would potentially bailout lenders who have engaged in predatory private student loan practices. Our view is that student loan companies should have to bear responsibility for the consequences of pushing high-cost private loan debt on high risk borrowers. After all, for years, they gladly raked in profits from these loans.

At Higher Ed Watch, we hear regularly from financially distressed private student loan borrowers who believe they have been victimized by lenders (see here and here). Of late, we have received many comments from borrowers who are struggling to repay private loans they received from the student loan giant Sallie Mae to attend for-profit trade schools of questionable quality. Given the debate occurring on Capitol Hill, we thought we'd share some of those comments with you.

Many of the commenters say they were duped into taking out private loans by schools that misled them about the quality of the academic programs they offered and about their job prospects for the future. One such comment came from a borrower who racked up $65,000 in private loan debt attending Scottsdale Culinary Institute (SCI), which is owned by Career Education Corporation, one of the largest chains of trade schools in the country:

The SCI recruiters do a number on you telling you what a great job you will get right out of school and how they even help you find that chef job of your dreams. Then once it's too late to drop out and receive any type of refund, you find out that it's all a lie and it is true, the chefs literally laughed at us thinking we'd be more than a line cook for $8-10 an hour after graduation. I left a corporate job paying $12 an hour to go to this school. What's the point of quitting a perfectly good job and going to a school that cost $30,000 only to get a job paying nearly a quarter LESS than I was earning????

A former student who attended the California School of Culinary Arts, which is also owned by Career Ed, sent in a comment complaining that her school, working hand in hand with Sallie Mae, pushed her into taking more private loan debt than she needed:

I too was blindsided by Sallie Mae. On top of the dishonesty of California School of Culinary Arts' recruiters (such as lying about future wages, lying about exclusiveness of the school, lying about the terms of the loan, lying about financial aid I was supposed to get), the school "accidentally" didn't even follow through with my Cal Grant, making me borrow over $8,000 more than I needed to. I hope they all go out of business and stop doing this to students.

Meanwhile, another commenter who attended Full Sail University in Orlando, FL complained that he had received little value from the education for which he had become so indebted:

I've never received a job in my degree after graduating from FullSail, Orlando Florida. I have over $40,000 in student loans from Full Sail, which after 4 years I owe more now than I borrowed. I feel the school and Sallie Mae scammed me. I need help paying off my student loan or some form of forgiveness. I am now serving in the US Air Force. Is there help for me?

Many of these borrowers expressed frustration over the seemingly inescapable burden these loans have had on their lives. Here are a couple of examples:

I got a loan for school at Katharine Gibbs in NJ from Sallie Mae. When I signed for the loan, I was told that I would not know what the interest rate would be until I had to start paying the loan back. Needless to say, it was a high rate of 17.5%. I have been paying that loan since 2000 and I have yet to see the principle of that loan go down. All these years, it seems that the money that I have paid has gone to the "interest" on my loan. At this rate, I will still be paying the loan until I die. (Paying Until I Die, July 10, 2008)

Has anybody figured out how to re-finance Sallie Mae student loans? They keep raising my son's interest rate on his loans which I have co-signed and now the payments are so high neither one of us can afford it. Everytime I try and call they say Forebearance to us which we have done twice now we are really in trouble. My son took $50,000 to live his dream as a pilot and now with the increase he cannot go forward and will have to work in a different field to pay the loans!! HELP! (Sallie Mae, August 2, 2008)

Many of these borrowers say they are doing their best to repay the loans but have found the loan companies inflexible and unwilling to help them find ways to make repayment easier. Typical is a comment we received from another former student from Scottsdale Culinary Institute:

After I graduated, I was told too bad, Sallie Mae has your loan and you can't refinance or consolidate for any reason ever because Sallie Mae would refuse to release the loan no matter what I did. So here I am 5 years later and my balance is now $60,000 and their collectors are telling me they will take me to court and garnish my wages because I can't force any of my friends to cosign a loan for me...They said they wanted to settle but in the end refused.

One comment we received from a lawyer representing subprime private student loan borrowers was particularly prescient, given the discussions going on now in Congress:

This is a topic near and dear to my heart, as I've begun representing culinary students in Oregon who have incurred profound debts to obtain certifications that qualify them for low paying kitchen jobs...it's clear that students are getting very little training for high dollar programs. I can't help but think that many of the trade-school-for-profit programs are simply numbers games fueled by lax regulation and Wall Street numbers. I wonder how long before the student loan predatory lending problems get the kind of attention given to predatory mortgage lending. Of course, if it does, I imagine that Career Ed Corp., Sallie Mae and other players will get bailed out, and-- like the mortgage crisis -- consumers will get crumbs.

As always, we appreciate the comments we have received on this topic and others. Please keep them coming. Hopefully, policymakers will pay heed of them before acting on this hazardous student loan bailout proposal.

UPDATE: Today, the New America Foundation has joined a coalition of student and consumer advocacy groups in opposing the inclusion of private student loans in the economic bailout package. Here's a copy of the letter the coalition sent today to the leaders of the Senate Banking Committee and the House Financial Services Committee.

Mailbag: Private Loan Borrowers in Distress

Ed Policy — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 15:45:00 -0400

At Higher Ed Watch, we hear regularly from financially-distressed borrowers with private student loans who believe they have been victimized by lenders' predatory practices. Much of that feedback comes in the way comments we continue to receive on blog posts that ran more than a year ago.

At a time when the federal government is providing a major bailout of the student loan industry, we think it is important to highlight the experiences of borrowers who are struggling with unmanageable levels of high-cost, private student loan debt. Surely borrowers such as these could use a helping hand too.

Many of our readers have shared stories with us about the seemingly inescapable burden these loans have had on their lives. Here are a few examples:

"I have borrowed about $50,000 in private loans. My estimated monthly payment for both loans is right around $800 and I earn around $1200 monthly. You guys do the math. I know I have a responsibility, but all I wanted was an education, not a $375,000 debt that i'm gonna carry all the way to my grave...At 18, I had no idea what I was doing to myself!!" (I have borrowed, May 7, 2008)

"My husband and I have over $200,000 in private student loans and over $150,000 in federal student loans. I am currently not working and my husband is a teacher. When our loans enter repayment, the monthly payment will be about $3,000! My husband doesn't even make that much per month and my degree (HISTORY-Lib. Arts) will not land me a high-paying job...We are currently driving one car that is 13 years old and we have two children in elementary school. HELP!" (Massive Debt, April 10, 2008)

"I'm a single mother that is not receiving child support. I have $39,000 of private loans and $17,000 in federal loans. I'm in default with my private student loans based on them not working out a payment plan with me. I have to pay $717 a month on my private loans -- mind you this does not include my federal loans. After taxes, I make about $1,700. This makes me hate the fact I even went to school and received an education." (Private Student Loans, May 8, 2008)

"I took out my loans two or more years ago. Part of that time I was working on my master's degree, but then put it on hold when I had my son in March of 2007. Since then I have been harassed, threatened, and basically called a liar and scam artist by Sallie Mae, when I was unable to start payment of the private loans. They want over $1000 a month and have now bullied me into putting my loans in forbearance twice, which they were kind enough to waive the $100 forbearance fee, but tacked on nearly $5000 each time for the forbearance itself. I am drowning in all this debt, I am disabled and my disability got worse after I gave birth and has been on a downward spiral ever since. I live on $600 a month from disability, so obviously I can not pay over $1000 a month to Sallie." (Disabled and Desperate, May 7, 2008)

Some of our readers say they fell victim to aggressive direct-to-consumer loan companies that never made them aware of their lower-cost federal loan options. Many of them acknowledge that they made bad decisions, but also believe that the loan companies took advantage of them:

"I am a victim of these financial institutions that are targeting college students with good credit. I was able to get $52,000 worth of loans over the internet never speaking to anyone. The terms were very unclear. I had no one to explain to me the devastating impact this would have on my life. By the time that these loans went into repayment status, I owed about $73,000. WOW!!! That is $20,000 worth of interest that they have racked up! My payment which I thought would be around $350 per month is over $700. There was no one to guide me and to explain what a libor rate is. I thought that my interest rate would be 4% and calculated like a regular federal student loan. I was so wrong and now my family is suffering because of this poor stupid choice that I made...I was only 22 years old and had no idea what a life changing event this would be." (Private Student Loans, April 12, 2008)

Others blame the colleges they attended for encouraging them to take on heavy loads of private loan debt with their favored lenders:

"I used Sallie Mae because the school I went to spoke of them like a god company. I borrowed $66,000 from them unfortunately, and now the payback amount is $266,000. (And they get away with it, April 23, 2008)

"I came to America to chase a dream and become a better person in this competitive world. I enrolled in the California School of Culinary Arts and being naive they recommended Sallie Mae to me. I wish I knew better. I was excited since I had no co- signer or good credit and I had the opportunity to get money for school. I jumped onto the train. I was told my payments would be about $200 dollars. Well, I am now looking at $500 dollar bills from Sallie Mae. I earn $2000 dollars a month. I can't even afford to send my people back in Africa some form of help because I basically have nothing left after I pay my bills. " (Sallie Mae worse than Enron, May 9, 2008)

And most cannot understand why the federal government treats private student loans differently than other forms of consumer debt by making it so difficult for financially-distressed borrowers to be able to discharge these loans in bankruptcy.

"Students should be able to discharge their student loans in bankruptcy as they can other non secured debt. Everyone knows there is risk involved with student loans and everyone should play by the rules that any other entity is forced to when it comes to loans. Sallie Mae is a company. A non government entity that is in the business of making money. The sooner people start realizing what is happening to the people of this country, the sooner things may turn around." (Will It Ever End?, December 11, 2007)

We appreciate all of the comments we have received on private loans and other items. Please keep them coming.

Mailbag: Private Loans

Ed Policy — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0500

In recent years, undergraduates have become increasingly reliant on expensive private student loans, which unlike federal loans, have uncapped interest rates that vary month to month based on market conditions. They also offer less flexible repayment options…

Note: This post pre-dates Higher Ed Watch's shift to a new publishing system. For the complete original post, including any comments, please click here.

Mailbag: Loan to Learn

Ed Policy — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0500

From the start of Higher Ed Watch in September 2006, we have focused a healthy amount of attention on the non-profit company EduCap, which until recently marketed private student loans under the brand name Loan to Learn. The company, which is owned by the Washington, DC socialite Catherine B. Reynolds, shut down…

Note: This post pre-dates Higher Ed Watch's shift to a new publishing system. For the complete original post, including any comments, please click here.

Mailbag: University of Phoenix

Ed Policy — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0500

Readers comment on items weeks or even months after a post first appears, and we fear that some may miss valuable and interesting feedback. So from time to time, we at Higher Ed Watch are going to highlight moving, thoughtful, and sometimes incendiary comments that we have received on…

Note: This post pre-dates Higher Ed Watch's shift to a new publishing system. For the complete original post, including any comments, please click here.