EVERYBODY’S TALKING ABOUT THE NEED FOR MORE MONITORING OF FOR-PROFIT COLLEGES.

But given what we know about the misbehavior of traditional nonprofit colleges in terms of graduation rates, employment prospects, and enormous student-loan indebtedness, I’m wondering why the for-profit sector deserves special attention.

To me, this looks like an effort to deflect blame from traditional institutions, while simultaneously cutting down on competition.

UPDATE: Reader Rob Crawford writes: “A sister-in-law of mine works for a state university, and after I mentioned to her that I was taking on-line courses towards a master’s, she spent fifteen minutes trying to find exactly who is behind the on-line university. This is after admitting that her school doesn’t even try to recruit from in-state students, and that they’re closer to a private school in attitude. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that the tuition cost of my entire degree is the same as a single semester for an out-of-state student at her school. I suspect that fact alone will be causing traditional schools heartaches for years.” It’s all a vast conspiracy.