ANNAPOLIS – Maryland lawmakers are trying to crack down on for-profit colleges with legislation that would impose sanctions, prohibit their students from receiving state aid and ban them from rewarding recruiters. The bill, which is advancing in the Senate, would regulate for-profit colleges operating in Maryland — such as the Washington Post Co.’s Kaplan University, DeVry University and the University of Phoenix, according to state Sen. Paul G. Pinsky, the bill’s sponsor.
The state has no regulations covering for-profit colleges, which have come under fire after federal investigators discovered schools giving false information to prospective students to boost enrollment and secure more federal grants.
With enrollment soaring 225 percent in the last two decades, the Prince George’s County Democrat said it’s time Maryland created some laws.
“We just want to make sure that there are no lies and false promises… so these young people don’t get defrauded,” Pinsky said.
Under the bill, for-profit colleges must receive approval by the Maryland Higher Education Commission to operate in the state.
The schools also would be prohibited from paying recruiters bonuses or other compensation based on the number of students they enroll.
And the bill would prohibit for-profit college students from receiving any state aid by the time this year’s freshman class graduates. Maryland reported paying $62,550 in scholarships during fiscal 2010 to 38 students who attended the schools.
Nationwide, students at for-profit institutions received more than $4 billion in Pell Grants and more than $20 billion in federal loans in 2009. In a study of 16 for-profit colleges, the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee found 14 of the schools received at least 87 percent of all their revenue from federal student aid in 2009. But one-quarter of students receiving financial aid defaulted on their loans, the Senate panel found. And more than half of all students withdrew before graduation.
“Maryland has had a tradition of regulatory fairness and equal treatment for all degree-granting institutions in the state,” said Harris N. Miller, president of the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities. The bill “breaks with this approach and, as initially drafted, would unfairly end state financial aid programs for students attending private-sector colleges and universities.”
