The Washington Post Co. has spent $350,000 in the last quarter lobbying on Capitol Hill in defense of its for-profit subsidiary Kaplan University, while at the same time editorializing in defense of the school in the pages of its newspaper, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.
The Times reported that the lawsuits and a congressional probe of for-profit colleges including Kaplan, which operates an online university and 75 colleges, have been followed by a recent drop in Washington Post stock by more than one quarter.
Washington Post Chairman Donald Graham has been lobbying lawmakers over new regulations that would require private university students to repay their federal student loans at a rate of at least 45 percent, the Times reports.
According to data compiled by the Department of Education, Kaplan students have a 28 percent federal loan repayment rate, which could disqualify future students from acquiring federal loans.
Senate Democrats issued a Sept. 30 report on for-profit colleges that found half of all students dropped out within the first two years, most with significant loan debt.
At the same time, the report found, for-profit universities are making record profits.
The Florida attorney general is investigating Kaplan and seven other for-profit colleges for alleged deceptive practices.
Kaplan’s revenue has helped the Washington Post Co. triple its profits, even as the company’s newspaper division consistently lost money, the Times story reported.
Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., who is the ranking member on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pernsions Committee, which is conducting the probe, said the investigation into Kaplan and other for-profits is flawed because it excludes similar issues plaguing non-profit colleges and universities.
“It is naive to think that these problems are limited to just the for-profit sector,” Enzi said.
