The Epic Failure of America's Private, Nonprofit Colleges: And Why You Don't Know about It

_{In this Sunday, March 13, 2016, photo people walk near Memorial Church, behind, on the campus of Harvard University, in Cambridge, Mass. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)}

RCEd Commentary

Most of the time, when we invest tens of billions of federal taxpayer dollars in something, we expect measurable results in return. Yet when it comes to America’s colleges and universities, not only are we failing to get the outcomes we want, we’ve outlawed even asking for them in the first place.

For-profit schools have been gaining attention for failing to deliver on their promises to students, but the truth is that our country’s four-year, private, nonprofit colleges aren’t holding up their end of the bargain either. The situation is so bad that 74 percent of those schools would be labeled “drop-out factories” if we held them to the same standards to which we hold high schools under federal law. At the average institution, nearly half of students aren’t graduating, 4 in 10 aren’t earning more than the typical high school graduate, and 2 in 10 are unable to repay their loans.

The head of one of the biggest lobbying organizations for the higher education industry, the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, complained that our recent report outlining these abysmal outcomes “give(s) the wrong impression of the higher education landscape and provide(s) misleading information to policy-makers and the public."

He and others in his network, including similar state-level associations and some of the people who head up the colleges themselves, dismissed the findings by saying the report did not include “complete” data. What they failed to mention is that this is the only data the public can access, because those same colleges refuse to release anything more and those same lobbyists successfully pushed to make it illegal for the federal government to ask. I’m fairly certain that’s the definition of trying to “have your cake and eat it, too.”

The truth is that many of these colleges act as if they are afraid of what would happen if students and potential students knew what value -- or lack thereof -- they were actually providing to those who enroll. In fact, far from “excluding students” to make their outcomes look worse, the College Scorecard Data we used, which was released by the federal government for the first time last fall, may even paint a rosier picture of some of these schools’ outcomes than they deserve.

As industry lobbyists repeatedly note, the completion rates on the scorecard only include first-time, full-time students (not transfer or part-time students). It is true, as we noted in our report, that transfer students are not included in this data, which is a real limitation. But part-time students aren’t either, and they are significantly less likely to graduate, so the fact that they are not included likely inflates the numbers. If the Department of Education is using the best data they are allowed to release under federal law, and this data represents students that are more likely to succeed at those institutions, can anyone reasonably call that cherry-picking?

Finally, those who are jumping to the defense of institutions with poor outcomes have pointed out the importance of a college education in the new economy -- and on this point, we heartily agree. Just one example of how crucial a college degree is for success nowadays: 65 percent of job postings for secretarial positions now require a college degree, while only 19 percent of current secretaries have one. But you only get to apply for that job if you graduate -- and at the average four-year, nonprofit college, your chances of donning a cap and gown are about as good as a coin flip. That’s why students must be better equipped to know which institutions will actually deliver on their promises and equip those who enroll with the degree and skills they need to succeed.

Instead of simply bemoaning the rising sticker price of college, policymakers need to have a serious conversation: How do we make sure the mammoth federal investment in higher education isn’t pushing more Americans borrow for colleges that have little chance of making them better off?

There are policy changes we could make to address this problem, starting with lifting the ban on giving consumers the information they need to make smart decisions. Because our report’s critics are right: choosing a college “isn’t like buying a refrigerator or a car.” It’s a much bigger investment, and yet there’s no Kelley Blue Book to help us discern the value of different models. Right now, students and families get little more than a shiny brochure full of often-empty promises. That’s not by accident, it’s by design. And it has to change if we want college to truly offer a decent chance of economic mobility in our country.