Thread by @Bob_Shireman

The @WSJ today takes the position that @NYGovCuomo 80% cap on government funding of for-profit colleges would “kill” good schools. Yet the colleges cited in the editorial would easily pass, proving the point of the Cuomo’s reform: private market forces improve college quality.

The School of Visual Arts, for example, gets only about a fourth of its funding from govt aid. The remainder is from employers & students, providing some assurance that taxpayers are getting value, not the proverbial ten-dollar hammer that gets sold to taxpayers for $600.

Contrast to NY for-profit Bryant & Stratton College, where more students default on loans than get a degree: 3,306 former students from a single year whose financial health is destroyed.

B&S gets more than 90% of funds from government-backed loans and grants

Better for the govt to be “a co-investor rather than the only investor” because it brings beneficial market discipline and shared oversight, say @BrookingsInst researchers Adam Looney & Vivien Lee
brookings.edu/research/does-…

Non-government support is a good proxy for quality: for-profit schools that rely more heavily on federal aid tend to have poorer student outcomes, concluded the Government Accountability Office gao.gov/assets/230/224…

Fueled by government funds, too many for-profit colleges are charging “breathtaking tuition for marginal programs,” says Rep. @BobbyScott. chairman of the House @EdLaborCmte
ccdaily.com/2019/02/common…

For-profit colleges using federal grants and loans charge 78 percent more tuition than for-profit colleges offering the same type of training but without federal aid.
dx.doi.org/10.1257/pol.6.…

When federal aid is increased, for-profit colleges raise tuition at four times the rate of nonprofit colleges (which are far less reliant on govt aid).
newyorkfed.org/medialibrary/m…

Execs at @GA, a highly-regarded coding school, say flooding schools like theirs with government funds, w/o adequate safeguards, causes “an influx of bad actors” that stymies the very innovation the companies hope to promote.
insidehighered.com/digital-learni…

A national accreditor of online schools, DEAC, has a 75% cap on federal aid to its schools, because being accountable to employers who have skin in the game drives improvement of school quality and stronger student outcomes. deac.org/UploadedDocume…

Financial support from employers ensured quality at the University of Phoenix during its rapid growth in the 1990s. The school’s downfall in the 2000s came from abandoning that approach, expanding with 100% government aid
deseretnews.com/article/865627…

Governor Cuomo’s modest 80% government funding cap will not kill New York’s for-profit schools, it will save them from their history of repeated scandals fed by too much reliance on taxpayer funding. Really @WSJopinion, 80% is not enough?? tcf.org/content/commen…