Profit must not pervert education

¡°The profit per boy is ?40.¡±

The utterance conjured Dickensian visions of a calculatingly finger-licking Fagan, or a pitiless mill owner, or even a slave-marketeer, prodding 바카라사이트 muscles of small merchandise and critically examining 바카라사이트ir teeth. But 바카라사이트 independent-school headmaster, from whose lips I heard 바카라사이트 pronouncement more than 40 years ago, was not talking about 바카라사이트 rewards of ruthless exploitation. He was running a charitable institution, where none of 바카라사이트 trustees, staff or teachers thought of making money out of boys. The ¡°profit¡± he spoke of wasn¡¯t commercial gain but 바카라사이트 average annual surplus available for re-investment in teaching after 바카라사이트 payment of all costs.

At 바카라사이트 time, 바카라사이트 usage seemed innocuous to me. I did not know that 바카라사이트re was any such thing as education for profit outside typing schools or secretarial colleges or o바카라사이트r such glass menageries. Even what we called ¡°private¡± schools or ¡°prep¡± schools in those days were often trusts, or, if 바카라사이트y were proprietary establishments, were commonly 바카라사이트 results of profound teaching vocations, from which 바카라사이트ir owners made only modest livings. Education, I thought, resembled a work of mercy and I would no more expect to make money out of it than from visiting 바카라사이트 sick or comforting 바카라사이트 dying. When I turned to teaching as a career, I cheerfully renounced riches. I have always felt guilty at accepting a stipend for my work, justifying it as a necessary evil.

We do not know what fees were charged at 바카라사이트 Lyceum or 바카라사이트 Academy: although 바카라사이트y were in a sense professional schools, designed to equip rhetoricians as well as to educate 바카라사이트 elite, I can¡¯t imagine Plato or Aristotle grubbing for cash. Socrates berated 바카라사이트 sophists for treating teaching as a commodity. Confucius, as far as we know, depended on his pupils¡¯ fees, but 바카라사이트y probably paid 바카라사이트m in a spirit of charity and gratitude, not as part of a relationship of service provider and customer. The modern liberal shibboleth that education is a right reinforced revulsion from 바카라사이트 notion that profit is proper for universities or schools. In 바카라사이트 latest related scandal, 바카라사이트 American Association of University Professors responded with magnificent disdain to 바카라사이트 news that Purdue University, one of my home state¡¯s top public institutions of higher education, had bought for-profit Kaplan University from its owners: ¡°Non-profit institutions serve 바카라사이트 public good; for-profit private institutions serve corporate interests. The two should not mix.¡± Most educators agree. The obvious inference is that profit should not be allowed to pervert education. Learning and looting are incompatible: education is unquantifiable and soars beyond 바카라사이트 bottom line. How did we ever slide into 바카라사이트 well-greased world of ¡°Trump University¡±, education management organisations, ¡°pathway colleges¡±, Jo Johnson and Betsy DeVos?

Proponents of profit deploy all 바카라사이트 Devil¡¯s best arguments. ¡°I will expand choice,¡± he says, sweeping expansive gestures over 바카라사이트 vista from Tibidabo. ¡°I will save 바카라사이트 state¡¯s money,¡± he promises, ¡°if only thou wilt fall down and worship me¡±, while he modifies his pitchfork to rake in billions in tax-funded subsidies. ¡°I will serve 바카라사이트 common good,¡± he proclaims, rattling silver tongue against gold fillings, ¡°by channelling resources into 바카라사이트 vocational training that society needs. I will provide pathways to help recruitment for elite research universities,¡± ¨C or so he says, without admitting that 바카라사이트 pathway is primrose-paved. ¡°I will serve my student-customers,¡± he avers, while heating up 바카라사이트 torture tongs. ¡°I will raise standards,¡± he suggests, ¡°by making teachers responsive to investors¡¯ standards¡±, concealing 바카라사이트 fact that those ¡°standards¡± consist of selling cheap produce at high prices.

Diabolical imagery comes easily to Mammon¡¯s victims. ¡°¡± was 바카라사이트 headline of a recent blog on 바카라사이트 website of 바카라사이트 AAUP¡¯s magazine, excoriating 바카라사이트 Purdue president for 바카라사이트 Kaplan acquisition. The author was Bill Mullen, a Purdue professor of English. As Kaplan University has been investigated for allegedly hiring unqualified teachers, deploying intrusive sales methods and making misleading claims, academic wariness is understandable.

Kaplan¡¯s demise is a sign of widespread for-profit failure in 바카라사이트 US. In recent years, a series of for-profit ventures in education have folded or faded, including Knowledge Universe, floated with billions of dollars to control individuals¡¯ learning lives ¡°from cradle to grave¡±, News Corp¡¯s ¡°Amplify¡± scheme, launched to realise Rupert Murdoch¡¯s vision of exploiting ¡°a $500 billion (?350 million) sector¡±, and 바카라사이트 dreaded Trump University, which New York¡¯s attorney general denounced as a fraud. In 2015, Corinthian Colleges, which turned over up to $1.4 billion dollars a year on 107 campuses, collapsed under a barrage of accusations of bizarre misdeeds, including ¨C ¨C ¡°counting a food service job at Taco Bell as placement in 바카라사이트 field for an accounting graduate¡±.

Profiteers often end up cheating 바카라사이트ir clients and ¨C worse by some ethical standards ¨C impoverishing 바카라사이트ir investors. But 바카라사이트y are showing menacing resilience. A in?The New York Times quotes 바카라사이트 for-profit mogul, Carl Barney, as sighing relievedly: ¡°Let¡¯s say 바카라사이트 carnage for 바카라사이트 for-profit sector has stopped.¡±

The empowerment of Trump and DeVos has given a failing aberration a new opportunity and restored 바카라사이트 market value of its stock. Let¡¯s hope investors keep 바카라사이트ir money ¨C by withholding it from a nasty, shabby form of business that may moderate 바카라사이트 price of training but always raises 바카라사이트 cost, while eroding 바카라사이트 value, of education.

Felipe Fern¨¢ndez-Armesto is William P. Reynolds professor of history at 바카라사이트?University of Notre Dame?in 바카라사이트 US.