PUBLIC POLICY
Oversight Versus Choice
For-profit Institutions Face Growing Scrutiny
BY BEN MILLER
Yasmine Issa and Annelori Roder never completed college following high school graduation. Issa stayed at home to raise her twin daughters; Roder worked at a local freight company. Years later, both enrolled at for-profit colleges owned by large, publicly traded companies.
Roder earned a certificate in national security and terrorism
management and a bachelor’s degree at Kaplan University,
which is owned by The Washington Post Company. She is
currently enrolled at a law school owned by Kaplan. Roder’s
experience was a dream come true. Each degree brought
another promotion and salary increase.
Issa was not so fortunate. She entered an ultrasound techni-
cian program at Sanford-Brown Institute, which is owned by
the Career Education Corporation. After finishing her degree
in 2008, employers would not hire her because she lacked the
necessary certification. Higher education institutions would
not allow her credits to transfer. Meanwhile, her student loan
balance grew to $21,000. “Sanford-Brown has left my family
and me worse off than if I had never gone back to school,” Issa
wrote in her prepared testimony before a U.S. Senate hearing
in June 2010.
