Higher Ed Solution? ITT Technical Institute Wasn’t It

From the first time Sen. Bernie Sanders made it a key issue in his campaign, we’ve heard more about higher ed this year than in the past, especially when it comes to free tuition for students of four-year-colleges.

Sanders’ insistence forced Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to come up with a far more comprehensive plan than she probably would have on both free tuition and loan forgiveness. Clinton’s stance has even forced the Republican nominee Trump to at least mention the idea of loan forgiveness in his convention acceptance speech.

But the legal issues over his so-called Trump University hardly make Trump credible on the issue at all.

In fact, his entrepreneurial view of education actually makes him a part of one of higher ed’s problem areas.

How do you provide for learners who aren’t bound for the traditional four-year college?

Who takes care of education when it’s just outside the Ivory tower?

The two-year colleges? Public four-year colleges? Or do you leave it to their proxies who see the void as an opportunity for privatization and corporate efforts?