Earning a diploma can take years, but some people simply don’t have the time. For that reason, companies have been cropping up year after year offering consumers the chance to obtain a diploma, degree or certification in exchange for hundreds – and sometimes thousands – of dollars. A new report from the New York Times details how one company allegedly rakes in millions of dollars a month by selling those bogus documents though a series of fake websites and forceful sales calls. [More]
education
PRO Students Act Aims To Protect Students From For-Profit Colleges’ Bad Behavior
By 4.30.15
It’s difficult to go a month or even just a few weeks without hearing of another for-profit college being under investigation for unscrupulous practices, such as inflated job placement rates and pushing students into costly student loans. New legislation announced today aims to curtail the number of investigations we hear about by protecting students from predatory, deceptive, and fraudulent practices in the for-profit college sector, before they even enroll. [More]
Digital Privacy And Parental Rights Act Would Put Restrictions On The Use Of Student Data Online
By 4.29.15
Students are more dependent than ever on technology and the Internet for their education, but those same apps and online learning tools that help educate them could be putting their personal information at risk if shared improperly. Nearly a month after it was first expected, a pair of U.S. representatives have introduced a bill aiming to restrict third-party use of students’ sensitive personal data. [More]
LinkedIn Jumping Into The Education Business (Kind Of) With $1.5B Purchase Of Lynda.com
By 4.9.15
Human resources and professional networking site LinkedIn appears to be broadening its horizons by way of a little education. The company announced today that it struck a deal to buy online career-skills education company lynda.com for about $1.5 billion. [More]
CFPB Launches Effort To Bring Financial Education To Schools
By 4.8.15
While it’s never too late to become financially literate, it certainly helps if you start early. That’s why the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is launching a national effort to improve financial education in schools.
Starbucks Expands Tuition Reimbursement Program To Cover Four Years Of Online Schooling
By 4.7.15
After more than 2,000 Starbucks workers headed to college through the company’s tuition reimbursement program with Arizona State University, the mega-coffee company announced it wouldn’t leave those student high-and-dry after just two years. Now, the company plans to expand the offering to cover a full four years of tuition at the college for eligible employees. [More]
Legislation Would Limit How Education Companies Use Students’ Online Data
By 3.23.15
With the use of technology now tightly tied to education, consumer advocates and parent groups have increasingly voiced concern about how student data is used. New legislation aims to alleviate worries over the exploitation of students’ personal information by placing restrictions on how that data can be used by third-party technology companies. [More]
U.S. Department Of Education Cuts Ties With Five Debt Collection Agencies To Protect Borrowers
By 3.2.15
Consumer advocates applauded the Department of Education’s announcement last week to end contracts with five private collection agencies that provided inaccurate information to borrowers. [More]
Federal Student Loan Forgiveness Plans Cost Govt. Nearly $22B More Than Expected
By 2.6.15
Last spring, legislators and researchers began voicing concerns that federal student loan forgiveness plans could become a victim of their own success. This week, we learned just how successful – and costly – such program are; information that once again created a chorus of concerns regarding the sustainability of such programs. [More]
John Oliver On For-Profit Colleges: You Might As Well Go To Hogwarts
By 9.8.14
What would it look like if you condensed all our hundreds of stories about student loans and for-profit colleges into a profanity-filled, hilarious rant that takes a brief detour to discuss Lyndon Johnson’s scrotum? John Oliver answered that question on Sunday night. [More]
Soon You’ll Be Able To Learn Dothraki So You Can Pick Up Dates At The Stables
By 7.29.14
Hash yer dothrae chek? Oh, I’m sorry, fellow equine enthusiast hanging out at this stable. I thought you might speak Dothraki. No fear, you’ll soon be able to learn all the phrases you need to pick up fellow horse lovers at the stable or tell your boss she reminds you of an enraged wild boar. [More]
Proposed Bill Would Keep Many For-Profit Schools From Targeting Military Servicemembers
By 7.22.14
Legislation making its way though the Senate could put an end to for-profit marketing campaigns targeting servicemembers and their families by changing the way in which those schools count student aid. [More]
Starbucks Announces College Plan For Workers Who Want To Earn A Bachelor’s Degree Online
By 6.16.14
Starbucks announced a new education program for its workers this morning, under which any of its benefit’s eligible workers — from plant workers to baristas — can get either full tuition reimbursement or partial scholarships to complete a bachelor’s degree online through Arizona State University. [More]
Google Will Stop Data-Mining Student E-Mail Accounts
By 4.30.14
Did you have a high school or college e-mail account administered by your school? Whatever, Grandma: lately, many schools have migrated to using Google Apps for Education, which provides mail and a suite of other Google services to educators and students for free. Free, really? Surely there must be a catch. Say, that Google was indexing students’ messages in order to serve up more relevant ads to them elsewhere on the Internet. [More]
Federal Lawsuit Claims For-Profit College Group Misled Students, Falsified Documents
By 2.20.14
We’ve heard horror stories about some for-profit colleges from students: the false promise of gainful employment after completing a short program at the cost of thousands of dollars. Now come claims from former employees about alleged fraud carried out by officials at a for-profit college group thanks to a federal lawsuit. [More]
Busting The Myth That Fine-Arts Degrees Lead To The Poorhouse
By 11.13.13
There’s a widely held conception that people who earn degrees in the fine arts — painting, sculpture, dance, music, theater, among others — are throwing money away on a degree that can reap no long-term benefits. But the fact is that a fine-arts degree is no real hindrance to making a decent living in the real world. [More]
Fewer Than Half Of Federal Student Loans Currently Being Repaid
By 8.5.13
It’s scary enough to think that the federal government has around $1 trillion in student loan money out there waiting to be repaid. More frightening is the fact that not even half that amount is currently being paid back. [More]
Where Public High School Costs $600, Including A Mandatory Chromebook
By 7.26.13
It’s not unusual to see public schools that charge students for extracurriculars or sports, but we were surprised to see this bill from an Illinois school district where it costs $586 to enroll in tenth grade, including $300 for a Chromebook. [More]
