A state education board found Monday that high percentages of students drop out of private for-profit colleges in Wisconsin.
The Educational Approval Board reported that from 2012-’13, over 36 percent of the 46,634 students enrolled in for-profit institutions like Rasmussen College and the University of Phoenix dropped out of school.
As a part of his 2015-’17 budget proposal, Gov. Scott Walker has proposed eliminating the EAB, which has collected data on students enrolled in Wisconsin’s private for-profit colleges.
According to the EAB Executive Secretary David C. Dies, that type of transparency would be lost under Walker’s proposed budget.
“[Walker’s proposal] eliminates the ability for anyone to collect and review student outcomes data from these institutions on this scale,” Dies said in a statement. He added that without the EAB, private institutions would not be held accountable to high educational standards.
A briefing released by Walker’s office to explain the budget touts the provision as a way to “decrease the fiscal burden of regulation on for-profit colleges.”
