By Professor Doom
It’s a strange world we live in today. Most media put so much spin on their “news” that it’s almost impossible to figure out what’s happening just by reading about it.
Everything Trump does is spun into the most negative thing possible, meaning all Trump news is taken with a grain of salt. I’ve heard it said that Trump could commit murder in public and his support wouldn’t change, but that’s only partially accurate: if it was reported, support wouldn’t change, because the credibility of the news nowadays is zero…nobody would believe the murder. If he actually did it, I suspect it would hurt him, however.
When the Soviet Union fell, part of what happened is people simply refused to listen to the lies of the State news agencies. We as a people are just now starting to realize our news agencies are also State controlled, hence the “Epstein didn’t kill himself” meme.
Anyway, Trump recently appointed a former DeVry dean to the student aid enforcement unit, an anti-fraud division created during the Obama era. DeVry is a funny place to get anti-fraud people from since it recently settled a $100 million lawsuit with our government regarding misuse of student funds.
DeVry is a for-profit school, and these guys all have a bad reputation for taking advantage of students, burying them in student loan debt in return for worthless degrees. This reputation, while deserved, is a little unfair: for-profit schools get all the scrutiny, even though they take about 5% of student loan money. The non-profit (and especially state) schools are far more responsible for the student loan mess we have now…but seem to be as immune from scrutiny as a Democratic candidate.
Trump admin reportedly hires a former for-profit college dean for fraud enforcement
Certainly there’s room for concern here, but things get exaggerated quickly:
“His association with DeVry and the fact that he’s being made the head of investigations at the Department of Education, does send a signal to students, to taxpayers and to the markets that the Department is not serious about investigating deceptive practices and other abuses by for-profit colleges,” said David Halperin, a lawyer and for-profit college critic.
A message to the students? Oh really. Over 95% of students don’t even know about the “impeachment” idiocy, so it’s a safe bet the appointment here isn’t going to register for students, and I doubt the taxpayers or markets really care all that much, either.
Makes sense in a way. Who better to spot a criminal than a criminal?
--from the comments section.
Now, just because DeVry lost a lawsuit doesn’t mean it’s totally corrupt, and it certainly doesn’t mean the new guy is corrupt. Regarding the latter, it’s possible he knows exactly how to “get” schools for misusing funds, so perhaps he does qualify as an expert. It wouldn’t remotely be the first time the government used an expert fraudster to help it catch other fraudsters, after all, although I point out he wasn’t named or implicated in any of the suits against DeVry.
The above quote is only minor spin, from a somewhat neutral site. When I go to a raging Leftist site like The Atlantic, things get a bit more frothy:
The Trump administration has made a systematic effort to undo Obama-era initiatives, particularly those that sought to ramp up regulation of private institutions. It’s long been expected that Trump would target policies pertaining to for-profit colleges—in fact, several for-profit institutions, including DeVry, saw a noticeable bump in their stock values the day after the election. A few months ago, the Education Department moved to delay implementation of the borrower-defense rule—a development that prompted attorneys general for well over a dozen states to sue Secretary Betsy DeVos.
“This can definitely be seen as further evidence of the Trump administration, and DeVos in particular, [practicing] favoritism toward for-profit entities…
Wow, that’s quite a bit to bring up just from hiring one guy from one place. While true, it seems like they could put some effort into saying why the guy was a bad hire, instead of linking to a bunch of things of no relevance to the story. I’m just not convinced a human being should be damned forever based on the actions of his superiors.
The wailing and gnashing of teeth is considerable:
“The Trump administration is turning the Education Department from a defender of students and taxpayers to an accomplice in the fraudulent and predatory practices of for-profit schools,” argued California Representative Mark Takano in a statement. “This hire is just the latest indication that President Trump and Secretary DeVos are putting the profit margins of for-profit companies over the interests of students.”
Wait. Since when was the Education Department a “defender of students and taxpayers”? Seriously, education in every way has become worse since its creation, and the entire student loan scam was allowed to corrupt higher education under its watch. Yes, it’s possible it will somehow become worse under Trump, but with a 100% failure rate so far, I’m not too worried about that.
The Atlantic goes quotes everyone who supports the narrative here:
“I can’t even say this is ‘signaling’ to for-profits” that Trump is on their side, Cottom said. The administration is “being explicit in saying that an era of regulation is over; this is a new approach that welcomes privatization.”
I really want to remind the reader, even if for-profits were the real problem, they were a problem before Trump. It’s curious how the article neglects to ever mention this detail.
Only towards the end does The Atlantic mention that Trump isn’t exactly Literally Hitler for this:
It’s not unusual, though, for federal agencies to hire officials with experience in the industries they are assigned to regulate, either because they’re presumed to know where the problems are, or trusted to balance the needs of the industry against the desire to regulate. Nor is his time at DeVry Schmoke’s only relevant experience; DeAngelo pointed out that his most recent role was at a public, two-year institution.
I wish the guy the best. Perhaps I have a vested interest in wanting his past associations to be forgiven; having worked at some extremely questionable State schools (and I again emphasize these are the schools doing the lion’s share of abusing the student loan system, not the for-profits), I certainly would hope for some redemption in that regard as well.
www.professorconfess.blogspot.com
I would hope and pray for some redemption as well. Our president has a history of appointing guys who, from outside objective appearances, seem to have been part of the existing problems in the economic sector that they were supposed to be regulating. Hopefully there is a method to this madness. Peace! I hope that your battle with cancer is going better!
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