New America Nyc

A former insider discloses the story behind for-profit schools to explain the exorbitant price tags, the questionable credentials, and the lose-lose options for Americans seeking a better life. More than two million students are enrolled in for-profit colleges, from the small family-run operations to the behemoths brandished on billboards, subway ads, and late-night commercials. These schools have been around just as long as their not-for-profit counterparts, yet shockingly little is know about why they have expanded so rapidly in recent years. Lower Ed, a new book by Tressie McMillan Cottom, herself a former for-profit college recruiter, lifts the lid on this big-money industry to show precisely how it is part and parcel of the growing inequality plaguing the country today. Behind the shareholder earnings and congressional battles are human stories—from mothers struggling to pay for beauty school to accomplished professionals pursuing doctoral degrees—that illustrate the inextricable links between the for-p