CEC slammed on 60 minutes!

Monday, January 31, 2005

Did you see the piece on 60 minutes last night (Sunday, 1/30) on so-called career colleges, specifically Career Education Corp (CEC)?

As a former CEC employee, I applauded the investigation into career colleges. I was in a position to occasionally proctor the so-called "entrance exams" and it was not uncommon to be asked to give someone additional time (above the guidelines for the test) or leniency in grading. As someone of strong moral character, as well as one who can identify with the type of student these schools attract, I could not in good conscious meet the admissions staff requests to “cheat” on these tests.

However, I do believe that the instructors truly care about providing a good education, even though they struggle with the lack of college-quality material turned in by the students. And, I also believe that the placement people are truly trying to place the people in good jobs. However, a bad economy in the past four years and the underlying fact that some of these students should not have been in the programs in the first place making their job a near-impossible task. All problems stem from admissions.

Thank you to CBS News for bringing this to the attention of the public. Hopefully if government will not take action, students will learn they need to investigate on their own—go to prospective employers in their field and find out where they think the best education can be received. There is a problem when education is "for profit" and probably a deeper problem when the company is publicly traded. Can you really do what's best for the students and the stockholders at the same time? Obviously not in some of these cases.


Note: They missed it on the Washington-connection. If I am not mistaken, Nick Glakas is brother-in-law to former CIA Director Tenet. That’s about as inside as one could get.

posted by suzyjax on 1/31/2005 09:45:00 AM > 0 comments

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