Here is how the article begins:
"Benson Rollins wants a college degree. The unemployed high school dropout who attends Alcoholics Anonymous and has been homeless for 10 months is being courted by the University of Phoenix. Two of its recruiters got themselves invited to a Cleveland shelter last October and pitched the advantages of going to the country's largest for-profit college to 70 destitute men."
"Their visit spurred the 23-year-old Rollins to fill out an online form expressing interest. Phoenix salespeople then barraged him with phone calls and e-mails, urging a tour of its Cleveland campus. "If higher education is important to you for professional growth, and to achieve your academic goals, why wait any longer? Classes start soon and space is limited," one Phoenix employee e-mailed him on Apr. 15. "I'll be happy to walk you through the entire application process"."
"Rollins' experience is increasingly common. The boom in for-profit education, driven by a political consensus that all Americans need more than a high school diploma, has intensified efforts to recruit the homeless. Such disadvantaged students are desirable because they qualify for federal grants and loans, which are largely responsible for the prosperity of for-profit colleges. Federal aid to students at for-profit colleges jumped from $4.6 billion in 2000 to $26.5 billion in 2009. Publicly traded higher education companies derive three-fourths of their revenue from federal funds, with Phoenix at 86%, up from just 48% in 2001 and approaching the 90% limit set by federal law."
It gets worse:
Read More at:
Golden, Daniel. 2010. "The Homeless at College." Bloomberg Business Week (30 April). http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_19/b4177064219731.htm?chan=magazine+channel_features
-- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929
530 898 5321 fax 530 898 5901 http://michaelperelman.wordpress.com