Brilliant article, rich. Even I, one who should know better, did not think of this side.
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A description of Monroe that you will not find on its Web site is one that Thompson herself-who spoke to me reluctantly after the drubbing she's taken in the press-proffered: "a vocational school." Monroe is what the education industry euphemistically terms a "proprietary institution" or, in ordinary language, a for-profit school. It is accredited as a college by the regional organization responsible for these things-a fact that an offended Monroe spokesman confronted with Thompson's words insisted meant Monroe must be a college and not merely a "vocational school." But it does not by any stretch of the imagination exist for the sake of the advancement of learning.
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@Bruce:
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There are those who will say that in choosing colleges, as in so much else, the principle of caveat emptor applies. But the whole thrust of the promotion of schools like Monroe-down to its bragging about a "division one" baseball team (that's Division I in the junior college league, not the NCAA, though you wouldn't know it from Monroe's ads) is to obscure the distinctions between a Monroe and traditional nonprofit schools dedicated to higher education. This they do quite successfully: If CNN can't tell the difference, it's not a surprise that young entering students can't, either.
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In my line of work, one must be very careful in dancing around advice (which I am asked outside of work, at least a couple times a week, running into people who know my field) pertaining to value of institutions, and a "what do you think I should do?." I advise them things like "make sure the credits transfer, whatever you decide. You might decide to one day go even further in your education and you need to know if those credits are accepted by...blah blah blah."
So maybe they should get a reality check, and be brought to the public knowledge, if indeed the "profit" far outweighs things such as "learning" and "viability" and "commitment to community" etc and so on.