Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy

by Tressie McMillan Cottom

Education is good because a good job is good.

desk, I did not know how to talk about school as anything but the savior of those seeking salvation.

We argue that consumers drive products, as if students are consuming degrees rather than the promise of a good job.

As it turns out, there is such a thing as “bad” education. It is an educational option that, by design, cannot increase students’ odds of beating the circumstances of their birth.

Far too often our statistical models and methods for analyzing what happens in higher ed understate the emotional toil of educational aspirations.