Research On Suicide: More Testimonials Needed

I am researching student loan debt and a debtor's suicidal thoughts. A few people have offered to share testimonials about their thoughts on suicide with me. However, I would like to gather more stories. I realize that it's not easy to discuss, but your stories are what makes the student lending crisis matter. Collectively, we are creating public discourse from the perspective of the debtor, and that's critical.

I urge you to share your story with me (ccrynjohannsen AT gmail.com).

Quick Post: Personal Take On My Time In South Korea

Many of my readers encouraged me to start a blog about my experiences in South Korea. So, if you're interested you can read my latest piece entitled, "Thanksgiving And War ."

Suicide

I am sending another draft to the New England Journal of Higher Education, and hope they will be interested in this next piece on suicide (they recently published an article I wrote about student loan debtors with health problems). They are a great crew of individuals, and I'm glad that we're forging a positive, working relationship.

I've written a lot about suicide, and have a sad story to share about a father who recently told me that if it weren't for his daughters - who are also indentured educated servants - he'd kill himself. I got pretty choked up by his confession.

In any event, if you are willing to share your story about being suicidal because of your student loan debt, please send me an email (ccrynjohannsen AT gmail.com). Also, if you know of someone who committed suicide as a result of their student loan debt, I'd like to hear your story. All people will remain anonymous.

It is a bleak subject, but it is one that needs to be discussed.

On that rather dark note, I do wish each and everyone of you a happy Thanksgiving. I didn't think we'd be having turkey, but we're getting two from an army base in Seoul. So enjoy this day.

Sordid Relationships And Broken Promises: Kaplan University's Troubling Financial Relationship To The Washington Post

 . . . lie to you. Yours truly, Kaplan University

A former high-ranking employee named David Goodstein at Kaplan University alleges that students who were enrolled in a surgical-technology program were misled and lured into taking coursework that would only leave them saddled with student loan debt, and with no prospects of actually graduating. Most of the students were minorities between the ages of 19 and 28.

"They were sold a bill of goods. It's one thing to offer a difficult program, but these students had no chance of finishing [their coursework]. In the end they have all this student loan debt from now until the grave. For what reason? So the Washington Post can be wealthier?" The Post is owned by Kaplan.

After completing three terms of intensives classes, the students were then required to enter an externship. Goodstein alleges that these externships did not exist, and that Kaplan willfully committed fraud. "There was a large backlog of students waiting for externships. On the last day of their third term, they were finally informed that there were no openings."

The school sold a program they knew the students would never be able to graduate from.

This poses problems for this particular Kaplan campus, which is apparently under investigation by the U.S. government. However, Goodstein could not receive confirmation from government employees at the state's Department of Education.

When higher education institutions receive Federal Student Aid packages from the U.S. government, under Title IV, they sign what is called a Program Participation Agreement (PPA). In so doing, they agree to abide by detailed regulations. When it comes to offering specific programs, the institutions must ensure that all the necessary components for such programs are made available so that students can successfully graduate.

In this case, Kaplan willfully failed to disclose the fact that there were an insufficient number of externships. "In my view, every time they got someone to sign up for this program, they were committing fraud."

Goodstein has worked for several other for-profit institutions and concluded, "These schools are the greediest [places] I've ever encountered. I don't care which school you're talking about, they are all profit-driven."

It also turns out that the Kaplan campus Goodstein worked at is located in a major metropolitan city with fifty or more hospitals. It would perhaps be safe to assume that most of these students could easily find themselves working on their externship in the last term of their intensive program. However, that was not the case. Goodstein explains, "For complicated reasons, like liability issues, most of these hospitals don't want these students. Moreover, those who do want students in the operating room and who are dedicated to this type of hands-on education would use their own students. So it was very difficult for these students to find externships."

It gets worse. If students did not land externships, they could not graduate from the program. Given Mr. Y's evidence, not to mention the hundreds of student loan debtors whom I advocate for and who have shared similar stories with me, it is hard to accept the recent claims that Kaplan's Post Company chairman, Donald Graham, recently made in a NYT article entitled, "Scrutiny Takes Toll on For-Profit College Company." Graham contends that for-profit schools like Kaplan are serving an important role in helping lower-income students, particularly minority students.

Mr. Graham argued, "We purchased colleges that served mostly poor students, and we embraced that role . . . For students with risk factors, older working students with children, Kaplan has dramatically better graduation rates than community colleges."

So these students graduate and end up with a pile of student loan debt and no prospects. Mr. Graham conveniently avoids discussing that point.

Goodstein also argues that these schools are "the darling of Wall Street."

He added, "they are driven by the bottom line. That means they would not turn away students. For example, in 2007 they earned $6 million from this program. So they fill all the classes they can, and that means more and more students are sitting by the wayside."

By 2006 the number of dropouts had increased to such a degree that this particular Kaplan campus was at risk of losing accreditation. At this point they received a letter from the state's Department of Education inquiring about the issue. That is why they are presumably under investigation.

Goodstein said, "In November of that year the school went nuts, because the state can shut you down in a heartbeat. Their end result was to follow a number of different alternatives. Their first solution was to bribe hospitals, that is they would pay a hospital between $5000 and $10000 to take on their students in externships."

Then in 2008 the program suddenly ended.

Furthermore, Goodstein believes that Jeff Conlon, the President of Kaplan Higher Education Campuses , was fully aware of these problems. "He knew about dropouts every single week. We called them 'the drops,' which was his biggest nemesis. Live students were what he wanted. If they dropped out, he saw them as dollar bills walking out the door. No one can tell me Conlon did not know what was going on."

Even worse, the Washington Post plays a role in this situation, too. That is why there is an absolute conflict of interest - something  I've written about already -  when they allow Michelle Singletary to write pieces about student loans.

More questions remain: what about all the students they misled? What has happened to them? Why hasn't the Department of Education done anything to help these students who were grossly misled by Kaplan? It seems the wrong people are paying a heavy price, but that is how it goes when it comes to the current stories that illustrate the student lending crisis. The students get screwed, the Department of Education turns a blind eye, and the bad guys (yes, they are bad guys) continue to get away with bad deeds. In the end, it is all about the big bucks, and the government has failed to do anything to stop it.

The New England Board of Higher Education

If you haven't read my latest piece, click on this link. I want to thank the New England Board of Higher Education again for publishing my piece about student loan debtors with health problems.

'Shocking' News

Kelly Field over at the Chronicle wrote an article that indicates Education Department may have made an error in reporting default rates. Yeah. And get this. They are most likely higher than previously thought. See? I knew you'd be shocked!

Good news! Jon Oberg Settles Case: Nelnet And Other Lenders Must Pay U.S. Government $57.8 Million

I've written about Jon Oberg on several occasions. He's the Department of Education's G-man, and he has just settled a big case against Nelnet and other lenders. That's some great news for the indentured educated class.

If you want to read through the history of my own work about him, here are the links:

- "Reading Between The Lines: How Sallie Mae's 'Forward Looking' Report May Screw Us, And In A Big Way"

- "Our Dept. of Ed Gman Is Doing Something Heroic For Us!"

- "The Resurrection of Dept. of Education Gman And America's Collective Trauma" 

Sordid Relationships And Broken Promises: Kaplan University's Troubling Financial Relationship To The Washington Post

This forthcoming piece is going to be a good one. I just submitted it to the HuffPost, and it should be up in a few days. My goal is to circulate this article as much as possible, because it shows just how rotten these for-profits are.

For-profits remind me of funnel web spiders, and both can be quite aggressive when provoked. While the spiders kill their prey, the for-profits like to lure in their victims with bullshit promises and then destroy their lives. If you talk to even a handful of students who've  been caught in their webs, they might as well be considered dead. One thing is for sure, their souls have been wrecked.

Here's the most shocking correlation between for-profits and funnel web spiders: I despise both of them! I know, you're surprised by that, aren't you? 

Stay tuned for the actual piece, and help me spread the word about these predatory institutions.

Thoughts On Shame: Michelle Singletary, The Washington Post, And Kaplan University

I am in the midst of writing a piece for the HuffPost about the sordid relationship between the Washington Post and Kaplan University. On a similar note, I've taken issue with Michelle Singletary at the Post on many occasions, and most recently it was in a piece regarding Jesse Jackson's decision to be a sell out and support for-profits. Singletary, on the other hand, performs an even more dubious role at the Post.

She loves to write these sickening stories about how people - actually one couple at her church - got out of student loan debt, and even worse, she recently discussed new initiatives related to student loan reform and higher education funding. In that particular piece, I wrote: "To make matters worse, you have Michelle Singletary at the WP. Oh, yeah, she's a so-called expert on this topic. She's calling for an increase in Pell Grants. I call that a huge conflict of interest."

While writing this forthcoming article about the Post and Kaplan's fraudulent activities, I became angrier about the situation. Moreover, the information upon which I am relying comes directly from a source who used to work at Kaplan. This person was not a low-level telemarketer or recruiter (although those individuals have mountains of evidence, too, so I am not dismissing the tales they could also tell). Instead, the individual played a significant role on one of Kaplan's screw-job campuses.

It's going to a a must-read for those of you who follow my work. The Post and Ms. Singletary should be ashamed of themselves. Frankly, I don't know how that woman sleeps at night. But then again I don't know how a lot of people sleep at night.

Yet Another Letter To Roberto Rodriguez

We've kicked off the next letter writing campaign, and I've sent all the volunteers the first draft that will be sent out via email to Mr. Roberto Rodriguez in about 3 days. Hopefully the White House will actually respond this time. We'll see . . .

Also, if you would like to join this letter writing campaign, there is still time to do so. However, you must email me ASAP (ccrynjohannsen AT gmail.com) and let me know you'd like to be added. Just copy and paste the following message - "I'd like to be a part of your next letter writing campaign for Nov. 18th 2010" - into the subject line, and you'll receive the rough draft version.

If I don't hear from you by November 16th, you're out of luck this time. But don't worry, there will be plenty of opportunities to let your voice be heard.

We must never forget: volunteering is, indeed, sexy.

Sponsorship - only a matter of time (and also expressing thanks)

I wish to express thanks to my amazing readers who offer their talents, and continue to volunteer regularly for All Education Matters (AEM). I know that they have bills to pay, families to feed, and must also contend with their own personal travails. These people remind me of why I am proud to be an American. Their efforts are the best gift that I could ever receive for my upcoming birthday. So, let's all take a moment to thank them.

I am also working on securing sponsorship. I've done this type of work before. However, now it's different because I have an amazing crew of people who have a great deal of knowledge about carrying this out - they are working as hard as they can to make sure this happens. So it's only a matter of time.

On that note, I've raised another $100+ in donations. Thanks to those of you who have donated. Every little bit counts. If you can spare $5-$10, that would mean so much to this recently incorporated non-profit.

An Attorney's Words About Bankruptcy And Student Loan Debt

My readers' comments blow me away. In this pithy comment, this attorney says so much.  In response to one of several pieces I've written on the subject of suicide (see here, here, and here), the reader stated:

As an attorney, I have seen people come and go through bankruptcy discharging everything from plasma screen tv's on their credit cards to gambling markers at a casino. Meanwhile - I struggle to pay my student loans and use all of my forebearances [sic]. I forgo health insurance and a social life because paying for a night out would mean having to deal with more credit card debt. Perhaps it's better to gamble and hope I win and, if I lose, discharge it. I cannot even dream of getting married in my lifetime as I would never want to burden someone else with the debt I am saddled with. Marriage + kids + student loan debt = divorce! 

Many student debtors have expressed similar sentiments to me. One woman recently told me that she planned on breaking up with her long-term boyfriend because she was ashamed of her student loan debt and didn't want him to know how much she owed. Sigh. It sure would be great if we could all get to work on the student lending crisis and solve this absurd problem. Can we stop for a moment and think about the Kafkaesque world we've created for the indentured educated class? (If my previous advisor happened to read this post, she'd croak with the way in which I falsely invoke Kafka in that way. Oh, well, I ain't a super-duper scholar like her).

How many of you are in a job you hate because of your student loan debt?

I am currently writing an article for the New England Journal of Higher Education about the problem of health issues, and covering health costs as an indentured educated servant. The piece includes testimonials from a number of courageous debtors who shared their stories with me, and I am grateful for their willingness to provide intimate details about their personal lives. These tales illuminate the devastating toll that the student lending crisis is taking. One particular story I received deserves further mention here. It comes from a young woman who, like so many of you, believed and was told that a college degree would ensure that she would make a good living and be able to enjoy a good life.

I read the story yesterday while an older taxi driver whisked me to work in Korea, and it was difficult not to cry (but I didn't want the old taxi driver to feel uncomfortable, not that he would have even noticed. Koreans, at least in public, have a fantastic way of ignoring one another). The email is nearly 7 pages long printed, and I finished it before classes began. Not only does the young woman - let's call her Ms.T - detail her health woes, which will be included in my forthcoming article for the NEJHE, but she also highlights a number of significant societal issues that intersect with the student lending crisis. Her piece was so moving that this post will be the first in a series that will demonstrate how her predicament exemplifies much larger societal problems. 

Ms. T's story includes a little of something that we can all relate to. In 2004 she received her BA in Sociology from USC. After graduating, she had a difficult time finding a job. Thanks to a neighbor's father, she finally found work after 6 months of searching. Sadly, this was not an ideal job. Ms. T explains, "from day one, I hated that job with a passion. It had nothing to do with my hopes or dreams for my future."

Many realists who are job-hunting consultants would claim that Ms. T is foolish in thinking that her degree would allow her to pursue the job of her dreams. While it is true that college students or even job hunters shouldn't limit themselves to searching for jobs that are connected to things they're passionate about (I seriously cringed when writing that), Ms. T's job preferences are not without warrant. She wanted and wants to help people, and work in the non-profit sector. What's so wrong about that? Ms. T is yet another example of someone who wishes to be of service to other Americans, but is unable to do so, because she is an indentured educated servant.

Ms. T continues, "So there I was . . . I had to pay almost $1500 per month on my student loans. I couldn't work at a non-profit organization because I had to survive, you know? And, they don't pay enough. Where would I find money to pay for my rent and housing without a decent wage?"

So here's the question: how many of you are in a job that you hate because of your student loan debt?

All Education Matters Is Making A Difference

Nov.3rd 2010. The day has finally come. Sigh. While I know we're glad the election cycle is over, I'd imagine that a lot of my readers are feeling the same way I do today, and are experiencing the post-election blues. So that means I need to brighten our days with some good news.

Our efforts have not gone unnoticed. The Department of Education is fully aware of Education Matters. A reader, who is an amazing volunteer, recently wrote to me about this fact. He's been on a few phone calls with the Department of Education. He asked me if I could relay any information to them. I said, "yeah, ask them why they haven't bothered reaching out to me." Ms. Wiley seems to have trouble fitting me into her date book, and that's been quite frustrated. She claims that the 13-hour time difference makes it too difficult to speak to me over the phone. I'd say that's a lame excuse. So what did the reader have to say? It's good news on many fronts.

He wrote:

"I spoke with Mr. Turpenoff and Ms. McFadden earlier today. They basically told me that they couldn't do anything for my situation because my big issue is with private loans (although they told me about some options with the govt. loans that I have). They talked to me about the consumer protection division that was created with the health care bill and told me that they are very familiar with the work that you have done. They stated that they have forwarded all of the complaints and concerns to Arne Duncan, but that is all that they can do. They stated that they do know that it is known by Mr. Duncan and the President that the student loan crisis is a big problem, but they don't know what is being done to fix it [my emphasis].

I asked Michael and Ms. McFadden why Wiley had not contacted you and that you sent a new email yesterday. Ms. McFadden stated that she was under the impression that Ms. Wiley and you have been talking. I sent you Michael's direct number in a separate email. He told me that if I ever needed anything to call them back."


I will be getting in touch with Mr. Turpenoff shortly. In the meantime, I will be writing another letter to Debra Wiley, and asking her - once again - why she has failed to respond to my emails and connect with me by phone. In addition, I am drafting a letter to Roberto Rodriguez about the heavy losses the Dems endured yesterday, and also tell him that it's time we had a serious talk about solving the student lending crisis.

I am quite under the weather - I've caught a terrible flu bug of sorts - so bear with me if you don't hear news in the next day or so. Nevertheless, stay tuned. The work continues.

 Hey! Mr. Rodriguez, we've spoken on the phone before. I'm still here, and hope you can still hear me inside the White House.

VOTE

Why? See here.