Vitelli bill would bring accountability, transparency to for-profit colleges
AUGUSTA — A bill by Sen. Eloise Vitelli, D-Arrowsic, would require annual review of for-profit colleges to ensure the schools are using tuition dollars to provide a good education for their students, not just profits to their shareholders.
The bill — LD 1404, “An Act to Ensure the Integrity of For-profit Colleges” — received a public hearing before the Education and Cultural Affairs Committee on Monday.
The legislation would establish standards and criteria for for-profit schools similar to those already in place for public institutions of higher education. For example, the bill would require for-profit schools to show that at least 50 percent of total spending is used for instruction and that no more than 15 percent of its spending is used for advertising. The State Board of Education would also determine whether a for-profit school is accredited to meet professional licensing and other standards relevant to the graduate’s degree.
If a for-profit college does not meet the minimum standards, the board could revoke the degree-granting authority of the college. Colleges would also have to report metrics such as post-graduate employment rates and loan default rates.
“Education — whether a two-year technical program or a post-graduate advanced degree — is more important than ever,” said Sen. Vitelli. “That’s why we have laws on the books to make public and private nonprofit schools accountable for their students’ outcomes. But for-profit schools, which spend millions per year on advertising, aren’t held to the same standard. This bill would give consumers, potential students, the information they need to make sound decisions about where to spend their valuable tuition dollars.”
In a recently filed class-action lawsuit, the for-profit InterCoast Career Institute is facing charges from several nursing students that their education was a “sham” and that the nursing program lacked proper accreditation. This left those graduates with thousands in students loans and nothing to show for it.
Lisa Miller of Somerville, who spoke in support of the bill, talked about a for-profit school her son had attended that clearly had “more of a business model than an educational one.”
“Federal investigations revealed that the company employed about 5,600 recruiters in their schools across the country but only 320 career counselors,” said Miller.
The bill also received the backing of the Center for Responsible Lending, the Maine Education Association, the Maine Center for Economic Policy, Veterans Education Success and University of Maine Physics Professor Jim McClymer.
The Portland Press Herald endorsed Vitelli’s bill in an editorial on Sunday, saying legislators should “give it serious consideration.”
“These schools are filling their coffers with taxpayer-backed loans, then failing to follow through on their promise to prepare students for a better job,” the Editorial Board wrote. “That backfired when two of the largest for-profit colleges, Corinthian Colleges and ITT Technical Institute, folded while under investigation for fraud, leaving taxpayers on the hook for forgiven loans, and it is backfiring in Maine when students get nothing but piles of debt out of their for-profit degree.”
LD 1404 faces further action in the Education and Cultural Affairs Committee and votes in the House and Senate.
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