John Kline is a patriot. He is a decorated war veteran who was trusted to carry the nuclear football for President Reagan. As a Republican, the congressman for Minnesota's 2nd Congressional District uses his position of Chair of the House Committee on Education and Workforce to block any and all reform of the For Profit College Industry.
Boston Globe report on For Profit Colleges
Meanwhile , the For Profit College Industry, is able to operate without impunity, thanks to Rep. John Kline. The system he helps perpetuates encourages prospective students to enroll in a school while paying for their education using government loans and grants.
City Pages: Kline is a Higher Ed Whore
Tuition can run up to four times the cost of conventional schools, often for substandard programs. Drop-out rates are into the stratosphere, with more than half of all students defaulting on their loans.
Recruiters have repeatedly been caught deceiving students to keep the turnstiles moving. It's a business especially known for preying on poor, guileless kids and soldiers with military benefits.
To top it off: Taxpayers are footing the bill. More than 80 percent of the industry's revenues come from student loans and grants.
This shouldn't surprise anyone, says Bill Allison of the Sunlight Foundation, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit dedicated to transparency in government.
"The business model is very much geared toward the federal student loan as basically the main lifeblood of their operations. Next to defense, I can't think of another industry besides for-profit colleges that's almost entirely dependent on federal policy and federal tax dollars." The problems have been public knowledge for years.
In 2010, a U.S. Senate committee on education delivered a damning report on for-profit colleges. There were few kind words. In page after page, the schools were depicted as exploitive and predatory, wrapped in the vestments of an altruistic mission.
2010 US Senate Report on For Profit Colleges
The City Pages report goes on to detail John Kline blocking legislation to scuttle simple reforms like forcing schools to divulge graduation rates. Other bills Kline blocked would have forced the Non Profit Industry to admit 10% of students who did not pay with student loans to show some students thought the education valuable enough to pay with own money.
Also - Rep. John Kline negotiated with the White House to keep student loan interest rates inflated.
More poor choices by Kline:
In early 2011, the Department of Education sought new "gainful employment" rules. Among the proposed regulations: At least 35 percent of a school's former students had to be paying on their student debt. If not, their federal education funds would be pulled.
It was a timid move by any definition. A school could have a default rate of 65 percent and still keep its federal cash. But at least the purest diploma mills would be yanked from the public teat.
Kline thought otherwise. In what would become a fortified line of defense, he moved to protect the industry's worst offenders, introducing an amendment to tear funding from the Department of Education so it couldn't enforce the rules.
Mere days after the victory, Kline's for-profit fans showed their appreciation with a fundraiser. Those attending the soiree at the Capitol Hill Club — hosted by the Association for Private Sector Colleges and Universities (APSCU), the industry's lobbying arm — were required to drop $2,500 to "sponsor" the evening, though a $1,000 donation could get you in on the cheap.
Per the City Pages
Representative John Kline has taken $900,000 from the For Profit Education lobby in this election cycle- More than the total fundraising by his Democratic opponent Mike Obermueller.
The University of Phoenix has received over 1 billion dollars since 2009 from the 2009 GI Bill which gave expanded education opportunities to veterans. However, Phoenix's overall graduation rate is less than 15%.
Kline has argued for years against earmarks. How about millions of taxpayer dollars being sucked out of student's pockets and into the hands of For Profit College heads?
We need to FLIPKLINE
Please consider contributing to Kline's opponent Mike Obermueller today!