I Write To Jay Matthews

Had to write to my favorite education blowhard at the Kaplan University Post, Jay Matthews, about the Times expose on the Washington Post/Kaplan University:

Mr. Matthews,

As an education writer, does it give you pause knowing you work for a company that runs its colleges the way Bernie Madoff ran his financial funds?

If even a tenth of the allegations in the Times article on Kaplan are true, every employee at the Post ought to be ashamed to work there.

But the people working the education beat, and particularly the writers who pontificate about education reform as you do, ought to resign in disgrace.

And frankly, the people running Kaplan and the Post, particularly Mr. Graham, belong in jail.

*****************
Teacher of English

PS: Here's my favorite Kaplan/Post recruiting practice:

"Many current and former Kaplan employees and students — including those, like Mr. Wratten, not involved in the lawsuits — said in interviews that they believed the company was concerned most with getting students’ financial aid, and that Kaplan’s fast-growing revenues were based on recruiting students whose chances of succeeding were low.

They cite, for example, a training manual used by recruiters in Pittsburgh whose “profile” of Kaplan students listed markers like low self-esteem, reliance on public assistance, being fired, laid off, incarcerated, or physically or mentally abused."

Just horrific.

These people really do belong in jail.

No wonder Joel Klein went to go work the for-profit education beat for Rupert Murdoch.

There's so much evil to be done there.

UPDATE: Matthews responds:

I share yr concerns about what the investigations have revealed, but I am very familiar with the morale and ethical standards of the people that run the Washington Post company, and am quite certain they are going to make sure that any of this nonsense that is still going on will be stopped. Every company has problems with employees, sometimes whole divisions, going in the wrong direction. The important thing is what they do about it. So let me know what you think a year from now. ---jay

I write back:

Mr. Matthews,

I teach English to seniors. I have long been aware of problems in the for-profit sector when a few of my former students who had attended for-profits - including the Art Institute, Laboratory Institute of Merchandising, Kaplan and Devry - were deeply in debt and had either dropped out of school or were holding worthless diplomas and were unemployed or working minimum wage jobs. Having seen Kaplan sign up special education students who graduated with IEP diplomas and load them up with $10,000-$15,000 in loans, then drop them without any intervention when the students couldn't do the work, I don't want to hear about your confidence that Graham and the Post company will take care of this mess. Graham and the Post company have had plenty of time to take care of this mess, having been aware of these problems for years according to the Times article. The only thing that matters to the Post company is profit - quarterly profit.

If Graham and the Post company want to do the right thing, they should come clean about the fraud, shut down these schools, and hand back all the money they stole from students and taxpayers.

No response from Matthews so far.