Profit Colleges Shame or Sham
It would be naïve to think that the developments in the Persian Gulf are not connected to the growth of for-profit colleges. In the U.S. Corporations and other business have no responsibility when considering the human rights of people who differ from their social economic class or outside their business sphere. This analysis begins with the laborers of Saadiyat Island, who are exploited by the kafala sponsorship system and the Tourism Development and Investment Corporation. This sector traps the migrant workers of South-Asia by taking their passports, giving them inadequate wages and living facilities in sub par detention camps (“High Culture Hard Labor,” Andrew Ross). This system has resulted in over thousands of death and Human Rights watch group has been isolated from these continuous occurrences. Funding these projects are global museum institutions such as the Guggenheim Museum, the Louvre and others are being endorsed with capital revenue by private universities such as New York University (NYU). This is a prime example of how for profit colleges and universities are ran more like corporations by outsourcing cheap labor power for profits. The interest is their shareholders rather than the innovating educational growth for their pupils by preparing them as the next generation’s working class. Note that private higher education costs at least $100,000.00. The once American now global ideology is to attend university as a stepping stone to achieve a formidable career with benefits to support yourself and your family. However, this certificate in society is merely a ranking with no fulfilled promises whatsoever. The student indebted is similar to the migrant labor who is barely able to send wages back home to support their family. Tom Harkin and the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions reported on the profitable business of profit colleges. The statics revealed are shocking, the revenue and profit sharing for this before mentioned sector is 3.6 billion dollars/ 19.4 percent for profit distributions, 4.1 billion dollars/22.4 percent for marketing campaigns and a mere 3.2 billion dollars/17.7 percent for instruction that is 59.5 percent of profit for non- educational affairs which is more than half of the revenue and profit sharing (“Congressional Report Slams For-Profit Colleges,” Paul Fain). It’s fair to say that numbers do not lie, after seeing such an assessment it is an understatement to say that these profit educational institutions have mishandled their revenue for capital gains in lieu of not prioritizing the advancement of student’s education and future. Graduates are an insurmountable amount of debt and it’s a rat race to find a satisfactory job let alone a career to support one’s self, forget paying back a lifelong debt. So yes the connection in the Persian Gulf can be attributed to the growth of profit colleges but more so for the mistreatment of international laborers and students with below average means. Universities have the resources and the power to assure that all parties involved be uncompromised social and monetarily.
