ABSTRACT
Abstract For-profit colleges have become a major force in higher education. They claim
to offer a career-oriented practical education that is an alternative to community and four-
year colleges. Often they fail to provide what they promise. Rather than being a new
alternative, for-profits are the new basement floor of education, offering substandard
educations at inflated prices. The primacy of profit motives and especially financialization
means that for-profits are more like a financial instrument of neoliberal policies than
educational institutions. Fueled by the reliance on federal student loans for operations
expenses, educational aims are secondary to advertising and recruitment of a continuing
supply of students without much regard for graduation rates. They appeal to first-
generation students and recent immigrants with little information about higher education
or the job market.
