According to Joseph Flaherty at Phoenix New Times, Phoenix has become the center of for-profit higher education endeavors. University of Phoenix and Grand Canyon University are based in the capital city.
Flaherty quotes sociology Assistant Professor Tressie McMillam Cottom (Virginia Commonwealth University): “For millions of people, the time trap makes a for-profit college your only practical choice for labor market entry, stability, or mobility,” Cottom writes. A new credential can seem like the only way out of a dead-end job, and an army of enrollment counselors can guide you through intimidating loan paperwork.
While there are some success stories from for-profit higher education, Professor Cottom’s description in the Atlantic article The Coded Language of For-Profit Colleges appears more common:
The more likely story is the student who finishes with high debt or more debt than their salary can absorb—say, a nursing assistant. Or the student who doesn’t finish, perhaps the most vulnerable of all students. She has debt, no degree, and all the burdens that made her likely to attend a for-profit college in the first place. For these students, the problem of inequalities in access and outcomes is clearly a consequence of lower ed’s expansion.
The Troubling Appeal of Education at For-Profit Schools
