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Education Desk: Durbin Decries For-Profit Colleges

Dusty Rhodes
/
NPR Illinois
Illinois U.S. Senator Dick Durbin addresses a room full of principals about the problems with for-profit universities and colleges.

Illinois U-S Senator Dick Durbin is pleading with school administrators to help prevent for-profit colleges from recruiting their students. His comments today came during a statewide meeting of school principals. 

Citing studies that show the average graduate of a for-profit college makes less than a high school drop-out, Durbin says he’s sometimes questioned by students about why the federal government awards Pell grants for them to attend bad schools.

  “How do I end up with a federal student loan to go to that school? Why do you even approve these schools if they’re so bad?" Durbin quoted the students as saying. "And they’re right on. Spot on. We need to do a better job in accrediting these schools. We need to do a better job in making sure they’re keeping their promise and they’re worth the debt these students are incurring.” 

Durbin has shared the same warning for three years, in what’s become an annual letter to high school principals.

 

 

After a long career in newspapers (Dallas Observer, The Dallas Morning News, Anchorage Daily News, Illinois Times), Dusty returned to school to get a master's degree in multimedia journalism. She began work as Education Desk reporter at NPR Illinois in September 2014.