For-Profit Schools Spent Over $10 Million Last Year to Avoid Accountability

Huffington Post reporter Chris Kirkham has an extensive new must-read piece today on the enormous lobbying campaign mounted by for-profit colleges to resist being held accountable for their abuses against students and taxpayers. Kirkham concludes that the industry spent more than $8.1 million on lobbying in 2010, compared with $3.3 million in 2009, and that industry executives and political action committees gave more than $2 million in 2010 campaign contributions, almost double the 2008 amount.

But all this spending has not bought the for-profit industry victory, so their lobbyists are trying new tactics. Late last week the media picked up on Campus Progress' rapid response to the announcement by an industry group, the Coalition for Educational Success, that it would attempt to create a new code of conduct to police itself.  See the widely-published AP story here, and this item in Inside Higher Ed for more information.

Katie is the Communications and Outreach Manager for Campus Progress.

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