Please join us for the Money, Markets, and Governance Workshop, on Tuesday, Nov. 3, at 4:30PM – 6PM, at Social Science Research Building, class 106
Nidia Bañuelos
PhD Candidate, University of Chicago, Sociology
The Promise of For-Profit Education:
Explaining the Expansion of Federal Student Aid in the 1972 Higher Education Act
Discussant: Marshall Jean
PhD Candidate, University of Chicago, Sociology
Abstract: In 1972, Congress amended the Higher Education Act to allow for-profit colleges and universities (FPCUs) access to nearly all forms of federal student aid for which non-profits are eligible. Today, these funds remain the primary revenue source for FPCUs. This article uses Congressional documents and related archival sources to explain why Congress made this decision. I find that support for for-profit higher education came from lawmakers, proprietary school administrators, and non-profit educators—all of whom believed that proprietary schools would democratize higher education and boost employee productivity at little cost to taxpayers. In tandem with Congress’s frustration over the politicization of the traditional academy, these ideas created a powerful ideological basis from which to support proprietary school students. Concerns about the quality of FPCUs were assuaged with the promise that accrediting associations would catch malfeasance and that students would ultimately refuse to attend any school that delivered a subpar product.
Snacks and Drinks will be served.
Questions about the workshop or accessibility concerns can be addressed to:
yanivr at uchicago dot edu