To put my objection more clearly: Don't use the IRS designation to whitewash "non-profits", which are in many ways acting just as atrociously as "for-profits" anyway. Your statistics miss something important - the socioeconomic class that is consuming the non-profit product comes with some inherently lesser risks vis a vis default (for example: I presume more "non-profit" college consumers are going to be able to cover their asses, debt-wise, with help from their parents). What happens when you correct for that, what is the magnitude of difference? The "non-profit" statistics also encompass schools where you are clearly going to have less of a problem getting a job afterward. What happens if you look at the LOWEST tier of "non-profit" university and compare it to the "for-profit"? I would presume that you would find very little difference.
http://www.mercurynews.com/education/ci_24041125/profit-coll...
The good news:
"Last year California cut from its tuition aid program more than 130 private colleges with low graduation rates and too many student loan defaults. Some wonder if the federal government will follow the state's lead to hold colleges responsible for their performance.
Today, only 50 for-profit schools in California remain eligible for state-subsidized tuition; 115 do not"
> hold colleges responsible for their performance
Sounds like a recipe for lowered standards...
To add to that, they tighten the noose with every legislative session. It appears to be the intention to make our pay proportional to "graduate success"; which will likely end up meaning GPA. That would put the same incentives in place for public college instructors that have existed in for-profit schools.
Which is not to say that should necessarily impact the degree of scrutiny those schools receive. But perhaps worth considering - if they are serving students who are likely to get no education at all, is it better / worse? Honest, question - no implications here. Just think its something worth discussing.
No disagreement here.
I don't want to give the perception that I think "for-profit" higher education is problem-free. I do think they have severe problems, but putting a disproportionate amount of attention on them is distracting to the problem that the "non-profits" are - which has a bigger societal impact, since they are serving more people. "For-profits" are just an easy target because of the broad social perception that profits breed evil, where many of those evildoings are just as bad in the "non-profit" higher educational sector.