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Taught in one for 19 years. It wasn't my first choice, but I didn't get tenure and this was what I could find. I believe we did some good for students who knew exactly what they wanted and found it in the well focused vocationally-oriented programs that we had available. From what I saw a number of them, who did not want to go to traditional colleges, ended up with decent careers that actually pulled them up from their families' poverty.
The problem was that profits trumped education. Until the complaints reached the level of an actual "60 Minutes" expose, to meet their number the recruiters would take anyone and promise anything. Then we teachers got blamed for failing illiterates, new immigrants who couldn't speak English, people with really serious developmental disabilities, and folks whose math skills stopped around multiplication. Related to this was, until it also was exposed with lawsuits, is that the students were told they were going "to college" and usually didn't understand that their credits wouldn't tranfer to a "real" school. Always the bottom line ruled academic decisions. Certainly economics is an increasing concern at legitimate private or state colleges, but here making the next quarter's numbers began to dominate everything.
Thus over time as the corporation, an 80-school chain, began to reach its limits as it followed the typical capitalist path of trying for endless growth. Several times a year at our school we'd have the "new program that's going to save everything", and which would then be killed if it didn't show immediate results. (In fact, several of the excellent long-term programs the school had been built on were also destroyed.) Full-time teachers like me, stopped being hired and adjuncts, no matter how good, simply aren't as motivated or will be as stable hires. Middle managers began to do several jobs and became totally stressed out. Terms went from 12 weeks to 11 to 10, then 5 with a doubling of weekly classes. Vacation periods were largely eliminated. (All this sounds like American business today, doesn't it?) The students, adults with lives, couldn't stand the new schedule or the constant faculty turnover and started to leave. Enrollment dropped from 2200 to 450, which led to still more stress on everyone. When I was told my workload was increasing 30% but my pay wouldn't "since you'd had it too easy," I walked. (As a friend who quit at the same time, then promptly died, said, "We had a good 10 year marriage, then 8 years of abuse. It's time to leave.")
Just to get an idea on salaries, while the health insurance awas good, after all that time at the school, plus having 2 masters' and a Ph.D. I was making under $50k. Adjuncts get at best $2k per classes. On the other hand, when the corporate president was caught allegedly faking placement figures he was forced out and supposedly got $5M in compensation. The stock, which was at 3 almost 20 years ago, peaked out at 70 and is now under 5.
So do these schools have a purpose? I'd say yes, especially with some community colleges so crowded that students have trouble taking required classes. Do they need much better regulation? Most assuredly. Better accreditation and some path for students to get into regular schools would be great, but nobody is talking about that. For-profit education can work, but generally not the way it's been allowed to run amok.
$41 million in one year! how many 80k educations could that be? sounds like robbery to me...
as if i'm not already to vomit. one kid in a community college that keeps cutting classes for the kids yet still keeps giving raises and building new buildings?, another off to the number one public university in the country in a couple of weeks to the tune of, oh man am i going to be a broke joke for a while!! its sad as my logic back in the day when the kids were in private school was if we're swingin' this then college should be a push! huh, who'd a thunk some capitalist pigs would extort the American Public by jacking up tuition in upwards of 700% in less then 12 years. Our nation is morally and fundimentally broke when in less then 25 years education takes the back seat to just about anything else. ie: $14 billion proposed to build a stupid water tube to move water from north to south, crap put some truckers to work and drive the H2o? billions propsed on the bullet train to nowhere? (tragically i really want a bullet train but not 'til we fix all the other junk thats broke first). $210 million to turn a car pool lane into a solo toll lane? heck thats only in califony! imagine the sheer amount of funding thats being manipulated right this minute all in an effort to make the rich even richer and line the pockets of politicians and buarocrats while stickin' it to us all!!!! broke,broke,broke, morally!!! And i can't help but wonder 20-30 years from now if we don't fix it, how strong AMerica will really be when the majority of the population is illiterate....think about that one!
I was surprised when approached to sign a move to get charter schools on the ballot this election. Washington state has generally had a pretty good school system. I did not sign it, naturally, but seeing the push to get these really brought home the reality of this kind of takeover in this country. From the top down to elementary. There are plenty of private schools around, mainly associated with churches, and they usually have outstanding curriculums, so I don't see a need for any others but especially with profit as the motive rather than learning.
Hello Thom,
I do wish you, Representative Cumming, and Senator Harkin would show a little more nuance when talking about for-profit colleges and that they're "scamming America". Given the sheer number of institutions, do you think that some are serving their students well and contributing to the knowledge of many who have little other access to higher education?
Sure, there are poor institutions in this category. There are poor "not for profit" (I use this term very loosely...look at the attention many give their endowment funds and the salaries of their administrators) institutions. Let's look at all institutions of higher education. Compare for-profits to "not for profits". Hold them to the same standards, by all means! Those institutions (whichever category they fall into) that are not serving their students properly should have their feet put to the fire.
I encourage you to look at Walden University (disclaimer...I am on their faculty). Examine their commitment to positive social change. Look at the statistics on their student loan default ratio. Ask their students if they feel they are receiving a quality education. I know there are others who fit this bill as well.
Hoping that a more rational, facts-based discussion of this topic will emerge someday...
Education, like healthcare, is a basic right that, when upheld, allows us to live freely in a free society. Government, in a democratic society, is a good thing and allows us all to be free and an important, proper function of government is the provision and maintainance of the people's healthcare and education.
If the democratic society is also a capitalist society the taxes paid by business to the provision and maintainance of those rights ought be seen as just compensation to those who work for them, a.k.a. "the rest of us". Historically, business objected to welfare benefits because they competed with wages and forced it to pay a more living wage than the slave and poverty wages it would've like to have paid. Walmart gave lessons to its employees on how to get on food stamps.
What business doesn't pay in wages it pays in taxes. If business refuses to do either you have happen what is happening now, i.e. the destruction of the middle class and the pauperization of the working people.
I attended a for-profit college and luckily, I have a good career. There is one for-profit college I know of and they were denied V.A. funding. Get this, the finance person is telling the vets to apply for private loans.
I don't think the word or a judgement of something being evil is the exclusive province of religion and has noticed many liberals and progressives using this word in the last 2-3 years as Republican and corporate behavior has degenerated rapidly, apparently with no remorse and much intention. Evil in the dictionary boils down to sth. that is:
!) morally bad, and
2) doing harm
and it also has definitions emphasizing extremely bad or wicked type behavior. We come into the world as very impressionable and our environment shapes a lot of our responses to certain situations and people, the world, etc. Good and evil are terms describing different sides of our behavior. It's interested to think 'how people view the world reflects their internal state'.
So Republicans may gravitate to the view all people are evil because that's closer to their behavioral state than the other side, good, which liberal folks 'believe in' possibly since we act more that way. I'm not imputing some generic difference or innate moral good, but a tendency, and it seems to be a strong tendency in what we see in the world today.
Of course, people who are hyprocritical and dishonest and highly religious naturally think of themselves in righteous terms, as very good or never in question (they can't face looking at their own selves). This is a psychological coping mechanism to be able to continue to do diverse, hypocritical things or have a view of oneself at odds with one's behavior....
Through my own life I have come to understand that Evil Is Greed without conscience
At about 7 or so our brains allow us to see that our actions have consequences that affect others
when we choose to ignore those consequences we become EVIL
Every criminal statute seems to back up that conclusion.
it is also a conclusion athiests can accept.
Members of the Association of Ethical Economists, a rebel off shoot of the American Economics Association will tell you that economics is a religion not a science and economists a priesthood that sanctifies whatever political philosophy dominates. The current political fashion for austerity is a good example of this..
What a load of bogus talking points!
Regardless of whether or not anyone thinks everyone should have an ID doesn't mean we should deny ANYONE the right to vote. The right to vote is too important to be denied and necessarily sacrosanct. If voter fraud is not prevalent there is NO need to kick ANYONE off the rolls much less a thousand, hundred thousand or, potentially, a million times the number of voters than would otherwise vote illegally. The few anecdotal examples given by Abrahamson are just rumours and urban legends. The food stamp office ISSUES an ID, it doesn't require one. People with public aid IDs can't buy beer without other ID.
And if Republicans feel that way about voter IDs then why are they against Motor-Voter? Just some Paul Weyerich flim-flam.
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On the other hand, as I heard in the news this morning...there is a big shortage of doctors not only in the private sector but also in the VA. It is said that they are swamped with patients and that we might have to import more doctors from abroad. Maybe more people who would become doctors are lured into banking instead..or maybe health insurance....who knows....
My relative, M, was a heavy smoker...he stopped drinking a number of years ago. The VA or military didn't give him his cancer (unless Agent Orange was involved...who knows). Smoking was something M decided to do himself and only he can be blamed for making that decision. I had a former boss, who I liked a lot (everyone liked him), a very nice mild mannered person who died of lung cancer due to smoking. And there are a few other people I knew that smoked and, I suspect, died because of it. I used to smoke at a very young age for a few years but quit. And I very seldom drank..and then only very lightly...but don't even touch the stuff anymore...not for many years. I guess we are all carrying the potential keys to unlocking the door to cancer within our bodies. All of our body's cells, using the DNA codes, go through normally short life cycle of replication and cell death. In with the new cells...out with the old worn out cells.
Our cells are exposed to all kinds of behavior modifications all the time and they normally have a way of "error checking" that replication and normal cell death as part of the cell cycle. The cell replication can be influenced or modified by many different internal or external stimuli....radiation from various sources, things you eat or drink (including chemicals), breathe (chemicals and/or smoking), or things your external skin comes into contact with. Although that major organ, the skin, does a pretty good job of keeping most bad things out...except the sun. Usually, cancer, which is the failure of the normal cell cycle in performing apoptosis...error correcting of an aberrant production of mutant cells. It also normally takes more than one concurrent potentially mutating influence to "cause" cancer....weak immune system, radiation, chemicals, exposure to viruses or bacteria, long term irritants...and some people can even have a genetic disorder increasing one's chance of getting cancer.
Death Penalty doesn't work on rich people. They buy their way out. Or deny It was their fault. Remember? Mining neglegence death in Virginia or People dying on an oil derrick AND IT WAS FILMED!
Yes-Canada has a first-past-the-post system. We should have proportional representation. In Alberta for example, a third of the population doesn't vote Conservative, yet they always get 95% of the seats-this really doesn't reflect the will of the people, only the power of big oil, العاب اكشن coal and gas. Also Theivin' Harper prorogued (shut down) parliament to prevent a coalition govt.
VA doctor prescribes physical therapist for someone who has cancer. Doesn't even bother with X-rays or any other scans...just prescribes more pills and physical therapy despite the immense constant pain, even after taking the pills.
As I said in previous posts...a relative of mine..(that I will call M)..had been having terrible constant pain that the VA doctor diagnosed as sciatica. M had had the pain for many months and it was getting so bad that he was actually thinking of suicide.
The first time I took him to the VA hospital emergency...that didn't really do much except to relieve the immediate pain...but it returned as we waited in the emergency room waiting room for many hours waiting for yet more pills..
Then, the next day we got yelled at by his doctor, who called us up, for not getting in touch with him before going to emergency even though we tried. Then his doctor gave him more pills, and a stroller, and told us to schedule an MRI scan with the hospital and, in the mean time, to schedule with a physical therapist. We called to schedule an MRI but had to leave a message...when the dominatrix drill-sergeant from the hospital called back and balled us out for calling so soon..she said that they were swamped and that they needed to wait for the paperwork from the doctor (yeah, like they tout this computer system that is so good but they can't get "paperwork" from the doctor)..we were at a loss as to what to do next. About a week later we get a call from a "specialist" and set up a date next month to see him.
After, a week of seeing M sink into depression and not eat for days...we called the doctor back but he was, again, unavailable. We talked to the aide who said that we should take M back to the emergency room. We did, and he was finally admitted to the hospital. M has been there for a week now and the tests have shown that he has a lot of cancer masses in several places (lungs, liver), and that has spread to the bones. They say, if he is lucky(?) he has only about 3 months to a year...if the radiation treatments work. M looks like he has shriveled up so frail and tiny compared to what he was. I just hope the VA can keep him medicated and painless until he finally dies. If he had only been diagnosed correctly earlier, he may have had a chance. But, it seems that mega-pain is not important...you have to tell them that you have been thinking about committing suicide before they will do anything like X-rays or MRI. I think the military has been getting a real political black eye because of all of the many suicides of soldiers and veterans. And so they are very sensitive to that problem. They don't seem to mind if you suffer and die...as long as all you cost them is a few pills...and physical therapists.
I'm glad they finally took him into the hospital and ran the necessary tests even though it is too late to really do anything about it...except to try making him as comfortable as they can before he dies. But, why are the arrogant primary care VA doctors so oblivious to the lives of people who are suffering? Are they really so incompetent or are they being manipulated by the system to play the one to decide who lives and who dies.
When you buy something on-line, you may be sending your payment information to someone you never even knew about or ever heard about and they may hold the keys to your bank account.
Global Payments(GPN) is "One of the largest online payment processors, the company handles online transactions for thousands of merchants around the globe. When you pay for something on the Internet, your bank probably doesn't deal directly with the company that you're buying from. Rather, your information gets passed on to Global, which passes it on to a bank, which completes the transaction."
"According to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization, 3,044 data breaches have been made public since 2005, affecting 546,357,063 compromised records -- more than one for every person in the country. Most of these aren't bank accounts, but it seems likely that records involving almost every aspect of our lives have been breached at some point."
"You shouldn't use your debit card to buy things,"...... "They don't have the same legal protections as credit cards." "Under the law"....., "banks have 45 days to investigate compromised accounts. If they have not concluded their investigation within two weeks, they must reimburse the customer, but are legally able to take the money back if they later find that they have been cheated. "If you're using a debit card, you could end up in a situation without funds,"
http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/04/23/bank-accounts-hacked-chase-global...
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"A recent data breach may affect under 1.5 million credit cards in North America, according to the card processor involved.
Visa and Mastercard announced Friday that they had notified their card holders of the potential for identity theft and illicit charges because of the breach. The card processor, Global Payments, put a number on those who could be affected late Sunday.
Global Payments said that credit card data may have been stolen..."
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/apr/02/business/la-fi-visa-breach-20120402
Find a lot of interesting stuff on Pastebin...lots of different bank account and credit card stuff
http://pastebin.com/YLNhU8L8
http://www.animegist.com/old//Somaleaks/Rsa.Banking.dbo.CLIENTS_sample.txt
But, although this is mostly Middle East bank...I have seen bank account info posted on pastebin from US banks as well...and a whole lot of them.
Put the CEO and President in jail, hard time, not country club, and also the v. Pres or director in charge of the department that did the bad ethical judgement leading to the charges. You can forgive with misdemeanor charges the people who fillrd out the papers. they were just following orders subject to being fired if they didn't follow orders.
No ome in a democracy, including the U.S President is above the law.
Can't even trust your own bank!
San Jose couple convicted of scamming 97-year-old of life savings
By Eric Kurhi
http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_21115460/bank-employee-and-he...
It is believed that the 97 year old man, who died just a few days after the deposition, died from the stress of being cheated out of his life's savings. A lifelong handyman, who scrimped and saved, worked hard for his money. And this young couple who defrauded him, the woman a bank employee, only got a few years in jail...5-7 years.
Elioflight--Way to go! I try to use cash in most transaction where I used to use a credit card. It also helps to afford me more privacy as no one knows what I am buying...except in those cases where I use a Supermarket Member's card...saves some money on member's prices...but maybe I should shop exclusively at only markets that are normally more inexpensive without having to use such gimmicks.
The more places one uses one's credit card, ie: the more people you hand your card to, who could be swiping your card covertly, the greater chance one has of compromising the security of the credit card number.
And another really huge possibility is when you use your credit card on-line. You could have a trojan, virus, keylogger on your computer that is using rootkit technology to avoid detection even by most virus checkers.
And then there are man-in-the-middle hackers who can grab your transactions right from the servers between you and the on-line businesses you are sending your credit card information to. Then there are the businesses who may not have very good security that gets hacked and the hackers steal all of the credit card numbers.
And all of this goes double for on-line banking. On-line banking is just not safe and despite the very safe encryption they use, there are ways around it that renders it not safe. Especially, if you are using wireless. Check out Firesheep. If the entire web (ie: every web site) used SSL then we might be a bit safer. Most, or all, banks use SSL, at least for the initial log in...but do they use insecure unencrypted session cookies thereafter? How do you know?
http://codebutler.com/firesheep
Forgive me if you already know all this stuff and you may have many certificates in networking or crypto and may be very up on this stuff. But, maybe, some others may not be. I'm certainly not an expert and learn new things every day. But I try to keep up with all of the security breaches that occur all the time and know that most of this stuff does not get into main stream news.
And a lot of people put way too much trust in very vulnerable "institutions". If you think you're safe....you're not! Trust no one! Use cash! But then you have to worry about being clobbered over the head and your money stolen anyway. But, at least, then you'd know you had been robbed (unless you're dead) and could immediately report it to the police. With on-line banking or credit card fraud you may not know immediately, or maybe never, that you had been robbed. And if you don't report it immediately to the bank or credit card company you could just be totally unable to recoup your money.
Given what the financial institutions have done...it may just be safer to keep your money under your mattress...and hope you always know what denomination bills you are paying for merchandise with.
Once, I handed three $50.00 bills to a cashier at Frys, for a $58.00 purchase, thinking they were $20s. I was really thankful that the cashier looked at me really funny and told me what I had done. He said that it happens all the time...one guy, he said, handed him three $100.00 bills thinking they were $10s. Thank goodness for a few people like that guy at Frys who was honest.
JFYooper--I agree with most of what you said but we need to support those who are in the streets rebelling against a corrupt system...even if some believe that some of these protesters are just lazy kids...they are sure not as lazy as most of us who just respond to blogs and don't make the effort to show up like the "kids" do..and it takes a lot of bravery to stand in front of police with pepper spray and head bangers. I suspect a lot of that "lazy kids" idea is planted by those who are feeling the pressure of those demonstrations. I believe we need to praise these "kids" and not denigrate them...and hope that many, many more join them.
For those of us who own businesses and can't manage to operate in a cash-only world, pulling one's money out of the big banks is a place to start.
If you are interested in putting your money into a locally-owned bank, you can learn more at this website: Move Your Money Project.org.
http://moveyourmoneyproject.org/
I just got rid of my CapitalOne Platinum card because my card number was stolen twice this year. The computer company the first thief was trying to buy a computer from smelled something fishy and called me--CapitalOne wasn't looking out for me--the customer who ALWAYS pays her bill--the next time, I spotted the breech on my statement. First, I was issued a new card and account number. Then that number was hijacked within a month. CapitalOne's fraud department told me they couldn't protect me--so I said good-bye.
I'm done with credit cards. I'm dealing in cash from now on--which means I won't be shopping on the Internet any more, which is where my visits to supposed safe sites were exposed to thieves.
The rest of you should wake up and start drawing your money away from these corporate banks and institutions and Internet retailers. That vaccum of lost cash/revenue could be the wake-up call they need.
Bring out the guillotine. It would only take a couple of heads, then the rest of the one percent would be asking us "What can we do for you!"
All through history not one government,even ours, made significant change without blood being spilled
It is a shame to say this, but the ones in charge will not listen until someone in thier class has to give up more than lawyer fees.
When a student at Kent State University died,then the call for the Vietnam war to end was heard.Until then it was just hippies protesting
Until Martin King died, laws were passed, until then it was just " the blacks protesting."
Occupy wall street right now is just "lazy kids protesting."
Until the Congress is not allowed to own or have stocks or bonds, money will be their God.
Until the Presidents kids, nephews,and nieces are forced to fight on the front lines for the duration of a war, we will keep invading.
Until the lobbiest are limited to one day a week, thier laws will be passed. Allow the regular citizen the rest of the week to lobby for their cause.
Until the press reports the whole truth, we will keep having drama for news.
Until our election process is open and honest(not just legal) they will be rigged.
Until blood is spilled,, nothing changes.
And right now, it is world wide.