The bubble grows

Student-Loan Debt Surpasses Credit-Card Debt, Figures Show (The Chronicle of Higher Education)

Americans now owe more on student loans than on credit cards, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing figures from the Federal Reserve and Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid.org. The total owed in revolving credit, most of which is credit-card debt, is now $826.5-billion, according to June 2010 figures from the Fed, while Mr. Kantrowitz calculates the total owed in federal and private student loans as $3.2-billion higher—some $829.785 billion. The Journal notes, however, that the figures reflect a sharp drop over the past two years in revolving-credit debt, which reached a high of $975.7-billion in September 2008.

Das Rote Kreuz (the Red Cross)

     Yesterday, I posted some photos, including this one of my grandfather in his "Samariter" uniform—at least, that's what my dad insisted Grandpa is wearing.
     "Yeah," I said, "but what about the crosses on his uniform?" My dad didn't know about those.
     My mom confirms that, at least by the 30s, throughout Germany, there were local volunteer organizations that provided "first aid" services—for Fußball games, athletic competition, and whatnot. They were somewhat like volunteer fire departments, but they put out wounds and injuries, not fires. It was a very different world back then, a smaller, slower world.
     It appears that, at least in the little town of Böblingen, the local group was called the "Samariters," at least into the thirties.
     I did some checking, and there was indeed an organization by that name—the Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund—which was founded in 1888 and was shut down in some sense in 1933. (It has reappeared in 1945 and is again prominent.) Grandpa —"Opa"— was likely a member of the ASB and he ipso facto became a member of the German Red Cross (the Rotes Kreuz), which absorbed the ASB at about that time (I'm not entirely sure about this; some sources say that ASB became "affiliated" with the RK in '37). My dad remembers that Opa greatly disliked the new administration of the organization—now the Rotes Kreuz—and, according to what I've read, that likely concerned its increasing Nazification, culminating in an action in about 1938 that officially and unambiguously made the Rotes Kreuz  an arm of the Nazi Party. (It was an "illegal" organization in the American sector immediately after the war. By 1952, it was welcomed back to the international community.)
     Opa hated the Nazis, though my dad warns that, "Well, he pretty much hated anybody with authority. He was a big hater." As you know, Opa's older brother Karl was an active Communist, and it is clear that Opa hung around with that crowd quite a bit, at least up through the early 30s. He was also quite the Nature Boy, being an avid hiker and amateur naturalist and member of the German equivalent to the Sierra Club (the "Friends of the Forest"—something like that).
     It seems pretty clear that, in the above photo, Opa is wearing the uniform of the Rotes Kreuz, of which my grandmother was also a member. And that kinda jibes with my dad's remembering the organization as the "Samariters." Likely, people continued to refer to the "Samariters" long after the ASB ceased actually to exist, with remnants operating loosely under that name--until 1937.

From an old German dictionary, published in 1931; "Red Cross" entry

     My mother remembers Opa's love of nature. Today, she told me that, when we moved into a new house near Villa Park in 1961, Grandpa and Grandma suddenly showed up and declared that they would be living with us. My mom's eyebrows arched skyward. She huddled with my dad and counter declared, "No frickin' way." The arrangement lasted a few months.
     Opa insisted on doing the landscaping for our new home, something my mom looked forward to doing herself. "I do it," he commanded. Being Nature Boy, he'd always go for long walks (at the time, we were surrounded by orange groves and stands of eucalyptus trees, and we were very near the edge of the Santa Ana Mountains). After a while, Opa started coming back from his walks with increasingly large and absurd plants and trees. At one point, he brought home an enormous walnut tree (the way mom remembers it, he dragged the thing for miles) and insisted on planting it in front of the house.
    "Yes, Opa, it is wunderbar, but it will become too big and take over," my mom complained. "Don't be silly," snapped Opa. Opa pretty much did what he wanted to do. He was always that kind of guy: decisive, uncooperative, naysaying.
     Sure enough, the dang thing grew to a monstrous size and destroyed the sidewalk and curb. We had to tear the thing out. When Opa discovered this, he was furious.
     Opa also insisted on planting a lawn, which was great, but my parents planned to put in a sprinkler system first, and none of that had yet been worked out. "Don't be silly! You don't need dat!" barked Opa in his comically bad pidgin English. So he planted the grass. It looked great. He seemed to hug it every morning. But watering it was a drag, and so, a while later (my mom had kicked Oma and Opa out of the house by then), my dad dug it up and put in a sprinkler system. That left a slight "scar."
     Opa was again furious. Heimatland!
     There are many such stories. The most colorful stories, however, concern my grandmother, "Oma." That'll have to wait.

     Here's yet another "mystery" photo. That's Opa on the right. At least three of the people in this photo are wearing party hats of some kind. The quarters seem unusually cramped. There's a map on the wall. What on Earth is going on here?

Another right-winger to replace Wagner?

    [You may want to skip down to my info about Mr. Muldoon (pictured at left) at the end of this post. Get used to his face. Hate to be a buzz-kill, but it seems likely that this ambitious young Republican attorney will be Don Wagner's replacement on the SOCCCD board. His competition? A Beckman high school teacher who coaches water polo. Probably a great guy, but good grief!]

    Yesterday, Orange Juice blog’s inveterately embattled Art Pedroza, a candidate for Santa Ana Unified School District trustee, had something useful to say about local community college board elections. (See Rancho Santiago Community College District Trustees to run unopposed in November.)
     “Running for Community College Districts in Orange County,” he writes, “can cost a fortune.”
     Well, maybe not a fortune, but enough to discourage many from running, since those who run without a “candidate’s statement” haven’t got a prayer, or so claims Pedroza (that seems plausible). And it's expensive to file a candidate's statement with the Registrar of Voters.
     Pedroza offers this chart:

     Pedroza zeroes in on the Rancho Santiago Community College District (his own area, I assume), where each of the trustees (up for reelection) is running unopposed in November.
     “This isn’t,” he says, “how our system of democracy is supposed to work.”
     Pedroza lays out the situation at other OC community college districts:

Jim Moreno drew an opponent in Area 1, at the Coast Community College District. Walt Howald also drew an opponent, the same District, in Area 5. ¶ Barbara Dunsheath drew an opponent over in Area 2, in the North Community College District. Jeffrey Brown did as well, in the same District, in Area 3. And Donna Miller also drew an opponent, in Area 4. ¶ In the South Community College District, two challengers filed for an open seat in Area 2. Nancy Padberg drew an opponent in Area 4, as did Marcia Milchiker in Area 5.

     But wait! What about Don Wagner’s area, area 2?
     According to the OC Registrar of Voters (RV), “Business owner/educator" Kevin M. Muldoon and “Teacher/Aquatics Coach" Thomas "TJ" Prendergast, III, have filed. (See below for brief profiles.)
     Naturally, Don Wagner is designated “not on ballot.” He expects to win his assembly race, and if the past is any indication, he will. (His area is heavily Republican. The Democrats' Melissa Fox seems to be a good candidate, but she's got a mountain to climb.)
     Neither Muldoon nor Prendergast has a candidate’s statement listed, though the RV site indicates that they’ve filed those. (Muldoon: issued 7/15, filed 8/6; Prendergrast: issued: 7/30, filed 8/4).
     Does this mean that the RV is late in displaying their candidate’s statements? Dunno. Probably so.
     Nancy Padberg has an opponent, one JACK FROST, a “retired electronics engineer.” But no candidate’s statement appears for him, nor has the celebrated meteorological phenomenon even filed one.
     Looks like Frost is toast.
     Nancy must’ve put her six-and-a-half big ones down, cuz she does have a candidate’s statement:

     During my service as a governing board member, I have led the district in establishing a nationwide reputation for education excellence and sound fiscal management. Our college district has paid off all debt and balanced every budget without new taxes or bonds, without laying off teachers, and while educating more students than ever.
     That legacy of success is at risk. I ask for your vote to insure that your tax dollars continue going to the classroom, not to education bureaucrats and an inflated high-level administration. As a former Masters Degree level teacher, I have first-hand experience delivering education. I have first-hand experience conservatively managing your tax dollars to deliver quality education.
     Strong leadership is necessary to stop financial mismanagement and political agendas in our colleges. As the proven fiscal conservative who lives, works and has raised children in South Orange County, I will provide that leadership to:

 Continue opposing tax increases
 Continue cutting Bureaucracy
 Continue improving Student success
 Continue increasing job training certificate and transfer programs.

     Nominated Trustee of the Year, I am an experienced business, education, and community leader supported by community leaders.
     Vote for fiscal responsibility, and sound education policy for our district without tax increases.

     Meanwhile, Marcia Milchiker’s only opponent is “health facilities evaluator” JILL E. CASE, who has not filed a candidate’s statement either. So, like Nancy, Marcia would appear to be a shoo-in.
     Here’s Marcia’s pricey candidate’s statement:

     When you elected me to the South Orange County Community College District’s Governing Board, I pledged that education was my top priority. I’ve kept my pledge.
     I listen judiciously and work tirelessly to ensure extraordinary educational value.
     Through outstanding conservative fiscal management, we are debt free and have no unfunded public employee pension liability.
     Our nursing program is ranked # 1 in the nation.
     We have increased our superb class offerings and programs. Our colleges have the highest transfer rates among all community colleges.
     I instituted:

     Paramedic Training/ Laser Technology/ Robotics National Accreditation for Nursing and Child Care Programs Cutting-edge Computer Centers/ Web-based academic planning Online instruction/ Student E-mail/ Short-term Classes Technology Centers/ Virtual Reality Job Training Business - Industry Partnerships/ Digital Labs Guaranteed Transfer to the University of California Honors Program/ Weekend College/ Distance Learning Saving our Outstanding Emeritus Institute Internet and Telephone Registration/ Library Automation

     During my tenure, we funded and built two world-class libraries, two student services centers, two child development facilities, reclaimed water irrigation systems, classrooms and physical education buildings.
     Please give me your vote. As always, I pledge to use my experience and perspective to keep our colleges on track.

     Pedroza raises another issue that concerns the SOCCCD:

The voting in the RSCCD elections is at-large [as it is in the SOCCCD]. This definitely discourages minority candidates. It is why a number of Latino and Asian candidates in 2008 had no chance of winning.

     With at-large voting, despite the division of the geographical district into specific trustee areas (e.g., Wagner’s area includes parts of Tustin and Irvine), voters can vote for all trustees, including those outside their own area (within the district’s zone). That’s why it was so difficult achieving the signatures for the Frogue recall a dozen years ago. Ten percent of all voters was just too many. (Nevertheless, we came very close.)
     Naturally, Pedroza advocates district’s changing to Area-specific elections, something I have long advocated for the SOCCCD. He also offers his solution to the candidate’s statement problem.

THE SOCCCD:

     But let’s get back to the SOCCCD. It looks like the reelections of Padberg and Milchiker are secure. They have challengers, but those guys have filed no candidate’s statement. Unless they have huge piles of campaign money (very unlikely), they haven't got a chance against these incumbents.
     That leaves Area 2, Don’s area. Here, there are two candidates—Muldoon and Prendergrast—who filed statements, though those statements have not yet appeared on the RV website.
     I shall assume that they will eventually appear.
     Looks like one of these guys will end up replacing Don.
     Who are these guys?

ABOUT MULDOON AND PRENDERGAST:

     • Uh-oh. It appears that Muldoon was an OC Deputy DA before starting his own law firm. He’s a Republican who chaired OC's John McCain Presidential campaign (2008) and who served in the (W) Bush administration. His championing of McCain means that, at least a few years ago, he likely wasn't among the seriously right right-wingers of our county. But things change. Boy do they ever.
   I do believe that he was among Don Wagner's competitors in the recent Assembly primary (Don won). He was endorsed by a "taxpayers" organization.

     • At a site for Southern California water polo, I found this bio of Mr. Prendergast:

   TJ [Prendergast] was born in St. Louis, MO in 1965. Played 3 years varsity at University High School in Irvine from 1980-1982. Played at Santa Ana College in 1983 and Orange Coast College in 1985. Played one year at UCSB in 1986. Coached the red-shirt/freshmen team at UCSB in 1990. Graduated with a BA in History from UCSB in 1993. Coached SIU-Carbondale club team 1994-1996. Received a teaching credential in Illinois, then acquired a Single Subject Professional Clear Credential for Social Studies in California. Taught World and US History at Rancho Buena Vista High School from 1996-2003. While there, coached Boys to 7 straight CIF appearances - 3 times to quarter finals. As well as, the Girls from 1996-1998 and 2001-2004 to 3 CIF appearances. Currently teaching and coaching the Girls team at Beckman High School. Also a certified American Red Cross First Aid and CPR instructor.

     • You can read an (old) ad for attorney Muldoon here. It provides a brief bio:

   Raised in Orange County, Kevin earned his Bachelor’s degree from Loyola Marymount University and Juris Doctor from Chapman University School of Law. Kevin practiced law as a Deputy District Attorney in the Orange County District Attorney’s Office before starting his own firm. While waiting for his bar exam results, he worked for the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives in Washington, DC, then returned to Southern California to be sworn in as an attorney.

     • The firm Muldoon started is the Westport Law Group, which specializes in bankruptcy. It offers the following bio:

Kevin M. Muldoon

   Raised in Orange County, Kevin earned his Bachelor’s degree from Loyola Marymount University and Juris Doctor from Chapman University School of Law. While waiting for his bar exam results, he worked for the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives in Washington, DC, then returned to Southern California to be sworn in as an attorney. Kevin practiced law as a Deputy District Attorney in the Orange County District Attorney’s Office before starting Westport Law Group. He currently resides in Irvine and attends church in Newport Beach, where he serves as a member of the Pastoral Council.

     This isn't looking good. Muldoon is bound to have connections to powerful Republicans in the county, despite his dalliance with McCain. His former boss, DA Rackauckas, is a key member of Fuentes/Schroeder's Republican Mafia (Carona, Street, et al.), for what that's worth.
     So far, I don't know much about Prendergast, but it is unlikely that this school teacher is similarly connected. The only money he's likely to attract would come from our faculty union (I have no information about that). It may help that Prendergast describes himself (accurately) as an "educator."
     The big question: is Muldoon simpatico with Fuentes? If so, we're probably toast. Prepare for the new Board Majority.
     Muldoon's ambitious. Once on the board, he will likely follow the example of so many before him and let Tom place his slimy paw on his shoulder. Purrrrrrrrrr.
     But you never know.

From the archives: mystery photos

     This is my grandfather (Otto) in his "Samaritan" uniform c. 1933, or so my father tells me. I did a little research. It is possible that this is the same organization as the Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund, which came to an end in 1933. At that time, the German Red Cross was taken over by the Nazis and the ASB (?) was either brought into the GRC or was outlawed. Not sure.

     The current ASB desribes itself thus:

   "Our mission is to help" – this is the guiding theme of the Workers' Samaritan Federation Germany that was founded by six carpenters in Berlin in 1888. Together with a group of dedicated physicians they organized first-aid courses for the workers in shops and factories to enable them to help themselves and others in emergency situations. Meanwhile the ASB has turned into an aid and welfare organization comprising 16 subnational and 259 regional branches active throughout Germany. The ASB has no political or religious affiliation and receives financial support from more than 1.1 million members. The ASB's tasks extend from rescue services to a host of social services and foreign aid.

     No mention of 1933.

     Back to my grandfather. The story is that Opa was not pleased with the new administration (at the increasingly Nazified German Red Cross, which absorbed the ASB) and how it ran things. The Nazis really messed things up.

     It appears that both the German Red Cross and the ASB are flourishing again today, though, after the war, the German Red Cross was in some sense illegal in Germany as were all "Nazi" organizations. That situation was overcome by 1952 and, today, Germany's Red Cross is the third biggest in the world.

This is one of the "mystery" photos that were found among Opa's things. The clothing suggests that this scene is very old—perhaps just after the Great War. Possibly before.

Another mystery photo—and most of the people here seem also to be in the previous picture. This one is dated July 20, 1919. These people were participating in a celebration of a large pine tree in the city of Kälberbronn, not far from Böblingen. Germans do that sort of thing. My dad tried to explain it, but the experience was like listening to Gracie Allen.

Another mystery photo (possibly from 1928). Check out the lederhosen. I think that my grandmother, Louise, is the second woman from left. Not sure. It looks to me like her younger sister, Frida, is standing to her right, our left.
These dang Germans seem always to be in the forest, playing music, cavorting.
I don't think the sun ever shines there, though. It's not for me.

The for-profits hit a nasty speed bump

     As a rule, Americans don’t like to think and they’re not particularly interested in conserving anything. They daily lend their tacit consent and even enthusiastic embrace to anything commerce spits out, no matter how thoroughly it reshuffles the social deck or how irreversibly it sends us into a brave new world of unknown nature.
     In this regard, arguably, so-called “conservatives” are scarier than liberals and progressives, for they happily embrace that loose cannon known as commerce, and they trust the alleged infallible benevolence of the “invisible hand” as though to do so were piety.
     In case you haven’t been paying attention, American education—and especially American higher education—is undergoing a transformation. This is occurring, not because some radical has persuaded us to adopt a new “paradigm,” but because of a confluence of mindless causes, including the failure of the academic world to keep its eye on the point and possibilities of being “educated.” By now, most citizens are academic barbarians. They watch "Three's Company" reruns. They'll tell you where they were educated, but somehow it just didn't take.
     FOR-PROFITS. There’s more to the transformation story, but a big part is the rise of the “for-profits”—the University of Phoenix, Kaplan College, Argosy, etc.—which are quietly taking over college instruction. Meanwhile, by degrees, old academic institutions—the idea of the university and even the idea of the “professor” with academic freedom—are dying, replaced with notions and practices that seem more at home in the world of business. Students are increasingly referred to as "customers." Education is "delivered."
     Clearly, this country—excluding immigrants—is experiencing a kind of decline, a Fall. College students no longer study much. The idea that one must get a good college education to succeed is losing its grip on the population, or at least on the youth. People increasingly occupy their minds with trivia and irrational nonsense and vote as though ignorance and stupidity were a virtue. About half the country has doubts about the President's citizenship and birth. The dullard Sarah Palin is very popular among Republicans. Everybody wants to borrow my Ouija board.
     Because we really are quite stupid and unconservative, there’s no stopping this transformation in education. Our only hope is in all those people from somewhere else—immigrants and their families—who don’t drag decadence over here with ‘em. I see this all the time at the colleges. Increasingly, immigrants are the big achievers among students. They're the student leaders. Meanwhile, Sean and Buffy are at the beach with dad's new Beemer.
     Those immigrant kids are a ray of hope. They really are.
     The for-profits are a cancer and, naturally, because our educational institutions are democratic—America is unusual in its approach to education, leaving big decisions, not with highfalutin distant experts, but with local elected officials—morons and barbarians often oversee our colleges, and they promote their own kind, including for-profits boosters and ardent believers in the latest untested whiz-bangery.
     Hence it was that, overnight, the conniving and ruthless (but distinctly undereducated) Raghu P. Mathur went from being a chemistry teacher to the President of Irvine Valley College. He was picked by a crew of "fiscal conservatives" that had just been elected to the board, owing to a nasty backroom deal with the faculty union. And then, after Mathur experienced two massive votes of “no confidence” among faculty, the board fixed the hiring process to make the creep our Chancellor. He has endlessly promoted “distance ed,” something he can barely pronounce, and he has long been affiliated with the execrable Argosy University, where he still pontificates in evening classes about good management, “new paradigms,” and “team building.” He received his doctorate from Crack Jack Prize University, a.k.a. Nova Southeastern, which is really good at making money selling degrees to morons like Mathur who know that there’s money in higher degrees, no matter how phony or worthless. (Mathur was only recently ousted.)
     This is America, where the business of Americans is business, and nobody knows the name of their Congressperson, and so there’s no stopping the for-profits. They are the future. You should invest in 'em.

* * *

     But, for the time being, they’ve hit a nasty speed bump, ‘cause Democratic legislators have been all over ‘em lately. You see, it turns out that the for-profits rely on turning the heads of the most clueless among us, helping them to get big loans that they can’t pay back. They default on these loans bigtime. And so, what happens? That’s right: the taxpayer pays the bill. People are already calling this a “bubble.” It’s worse than that. It’s a tar bubble. When it pops, everybody will get gooed. We’ll stink. We'll sue BP. BP will prevail. No one will care.
     Yesterday, the New York Times described a small part of the aforementioned “speed bump”:

Kaplan Suspends Enrollment at 2 Campuses

     The Washington Post Company’s Kaplan Inc. unit suspended enrollment on Friday at its campuses in Pembroke Pines, Fla., and Riverside, Calif., where undercover investigators for the Government Accountability Office found deceptive practices by admissions officials.
     At a Senate hearing on Wednesday on recruitment at for-profit colleges, a G.A.O. report, accompanied by videos, described deceptive or fraudulent practices at each of 15 campuses visited, two of which were Kaplan campuses. At Kaplan College in Pembroke Pines, for example, an admissions officer told investigators posing as applicants that the college had the same accreditation as Harvard.
     Washington Post stock fell $31.05, or 7.6 percent, to close at $377.56 on Friday, its largest drop in more than a year, after the company said in its quarterly report that proposed United States Department of Education rules could have a “material adverse effect” on Kaplan’s higher-education operations. The higher-education unit’s $212 million operating income for the first half of the year made up almost 80 percent of the company’s overall operating income for the period.
     The Education Department’s proposed rules would tighten regulation of for-profit colleges’ recruiters and rein in programs whose graduates end up with more debt than they can repay.
     Melissa Mack, a Kaplan spokeswoman, said the company suspended enrollment at the two campuses pending an investigation of the G.A.O. findings, and meanwhile was working “to ensure that such incidents are not repeated anywhere at our 75 campuses or among our 16,000 higher-education employees.”
     Kaplan’s higher-education programs enrolled more than 112,000 students as of June 30. 

     Don’t worry. Kaplan will be fine. Washington Post will make lots of money.
     The following article appeared two days ago in the always-excellent Inside Higher Ed. It gives you a pretty good idea what’s going on:

Shellacking the For-Profits

     Senate Democrats made it clear Wednesday that their examination of for-profit higher education has only just begun, and that they plan to pursue legislation aimed at reining what they see as the sector’s dishonest – if not fraudulent – practices.
     At a hearing on the “student recruitment experience” at for-profit colleges that began Wednesday morning and carried on through the mid-afternoon, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, outlined plans to hold more hearings on the sector, to collect broad sets of information from for-profit colleges, and to begin drafting legislation aimed at cleaning up the sector.
     “Education is too important for the future of this country,” he said. “Facing the budget problems we have in the next 10 years, we just can't permit more and more of the taxpayers' dollars that are supposed to go for education and quality education … to be going to pay shareholders or private investors.”
     Much of Harkin’s motivation came from the findings of a Government Accountability Office “secret shopper” investigation of recruiting practices at 15 for-profit campuses, the results of which – including a powerful videotape visible below – were officially released at the start of the hearing. The probe identified “fraudulent, deceptive or otherwise questionable marketing practices” at all 15 institutions, and inducements to commit fraud on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid at four institutions. Coupled with a former recruiter’s account of his experience on the job, the evidence presented at the hearing depicted an industry aggressively and universally going after “leads” and “starts” with the institutional objective of securing federal financial aid dollars.
     "GAO's findings make it disturbingly clear that abuses in for-profit recruiting are not limited to a few rogue recruiters or even a few schools with lax oversight,” Harkin said. The evidence was collected from some of the nation's largest for-profit colleges, including the University of Phoenix and Kaplan College.
     Though the U.S. Department of Education is expected to publish regulations intended to guard against abuse of the Title IV financial aid program by Nov. 1, Harkin said he was “not certain regulations will suffice.” Rather, he said, “I believe and I think where we’re headed is very clear cut legislation that can’t be overturned by another administration, that can’t put in ‘safe harbors’ and say it complies, but really tightly designed legislation to correct these practices.”
     Harkin promised more hearings on for-profit colleges in September, November and possibly December – including one on accreditors’ oversight of for-profits – and also announced plans to collect data on sector outcomes and practices. His office will today send requests to 30 for-profit colleges – all of the publicly traded companies, plus a mix of privately held institutions – asking them to provide information about their graduation and loan default rates, plus internal recruiting documents and details about their use of third-party companies, like lead generators that help with recruiting. “We’ve got to get to the bottom of this,” he said.
     Sen. Mike Enzi, of Wyoming, the senior Republican on the panel, acknowledged “aggressive and inappropriate recruiting practices” at the colleges visited by GAO investigators, but said he wanted to see the Senate’s scrutiny of higher education reach to nonprofit institutions as well. “In focusing only on for-profits, we are not being objective and we are ignoring the bigger picture of what is happening across all of higher education.” (That approach seems unlikely so long as Democrats have the majority and nonprofit colleges wield the clout they enjoy among many lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.)
     Also on Wednesday, Sens. Jim Webb (D-Va.) and Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) sent letters to Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki asking for detailed data on how tuition assistance money for members of the military and for veterans is being spent.
     “[W]e have heard reports that some for-profit institutions may be aggressively targeting service members and veterans, signing them up for educational programs that may bring little benefit to future employment opportunities, low graduation rates and high default rates,” they said. With the passage of the Post-9/11 GI Bill, they added, “we have heard concerns about excessive tuition being charged at some of these institutions.”
     Democrats Tom Carper (Del.), Kay Hagan (N.C.), Claire McCaskill (Mo.), Russ Feingold (Wisc.) and Harkin also signed on to the letter.

'Deceptive or Completely Questionable' Practices

     Presenting the findings of the GAO investigation was Gregory D. Kutz, the office’s managing director of forensic audits and special investigations at the Government Accountability Office. In testimony made more powerful by the brief undercover video clips that punctuated it, Kutz detailed “deceptive or completely questionable” practices at all 15 institutions.
     The colleges the GAO visited were not a totally random sample, Kutz said, but they were not institutions where his office or the Education Department were already aware of fraud. “It gives you an indication that this is much more widespread than a few bad actors.”
     Though Kutz’s written testimony didn’t identify the campuses the GAO examined, he did, at Harkin’s request, release a list of the institutions. They included campuses of the University of Phoenix in Arizona and Pennsylvania, Kaplan College in California and Florida, Everest College in Arizona and Texas, as well as privately held institutions including ATI Career Training and Medvance Institute.
     Manny Rivera, a spokesman for Apollo Group, which owns the University of Phoenix, said the company has “strict policies in place to protect students during the enrollment process and throughout their tenure with the university, and when we discover any violation of this policy, we take immediate and decisive disciplinary action up to, and including, termination of the employees involved.”
     Jacquelyn P. Muller, vice president of public relations at Education Management Corporation, which owns Argosy University in Chicago – one of the institutions visited – said that “every employee within our organization is held accountable for upholding the highest moral, ethical, and legal standards at all times.”
     Kutz said that though corporate leaders may try to dismiss his investigation’s findings as problems with individual employees, “I expect anybody who would have walked in... and that was trained a certain way in marketing was going to the same script.” Institutions may say “‘that was a rogue employee,’ but I suspect in some of these cases that is absolutely not true.”
     Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), reinforcing what has become Republicans’ standard way of addressing problems uncovered at for-profit colleges, said: “I know we’ve got people doing bad things, but I know we’ve got a lot of people doing it right and they’re going to be under a cloud unless we begin to separate the wheat from the chaff.”
     Joshua Pruyn, a former recruiter for a Westwood College, who testified at the hearing, said he didn’t think the kind of dishonest behavior that he saw and was encouraged to emulate while working at a Colorado campus resulted from a few “rogue” employees violating his institution’s code of ethics, but rather a pattern of behavior encouraged by corporate leaders.
     Harkin, too, said he believed the encouragement to aggressively and dishonestly pursue students came from higher up. Showing a recruitment training PowerPoint slide from the University of Phoenix with the header “Creating Urgency: Getting Them to Apply NOW."
     Harkin said he thought inducements to recruit aggressively were coming from company executives. “That doesn’t come from some employee,” he said. “That comes from the top.”
     During the HELP committee's June hearing on for-profits, Harkin voiced concern that formerly good actors in the sector had been “lured into the vortex of bad practices” that might, only a few years ago, have been the domain of only some. The findings of the GAO investigation, he said, were “evidence [that] points to a problem that is systemic … to the for-profit industry,” with a “recruitment process specifically designed to do whatever it takes to drive up enrollment numbers, more often than not to the disadvantage of students.”
     The fallout from the hearing isn’t likely to be positive for the for-profits.
     Jerry W. Hartle, senior vice president of government and public affairs at the American Council on Education, said he couldn’t “say for sure that it’s the most devastating Congressional hearing I’ve ever seen, but it’s in that league.” Harkin’s statements at the hearing, Hartle said, indicated that he “is fully engaged and is emotionally committed to this issue.” The findings of the GAO investigation, in particular, “seemed to really get Sen. Harkin’s attention.”
     The stocks of most publicly traded for-profits, including those visited by GAO investigators, closed down for the day on Wednesday afternoon.

     You’ve got to hand it to the current crop of GOP leaders. They’re amazing. They represent everything that’s wrong with this country.
     Democratically speaking, that’s good representation.

The old mandolin

Recently, I referred to my grandfather's mandolin, which he played with friends in his home town of Böblingen, Germany. He eventually gave the thing to my mother, who also plays the instrument somewhat.

Today, I asked her about it. I thought she'd have to dig it out of storage, but in fact it was standing in a corner in her bedroom. It looks pretty good, though there is some buckling on its face around the sound hole/pick guard.

The instrument was manufactured by Meinel and Herold, a very old musical instrument maker. The M&H plant was closed in 1973 by the East German government. I guess they weren't into music.

Today, my dad explained that, for a time, Opa played the violin, too, but he was forced to abandon the instrument because the sound it made caused my dad to vomit.

I assume this difficulty arose when dad was a baby.

But I didn't ask.

TigerAnn enjoys the good weather. She endlessly lobbies to be let outside.

Here she is giving me the stink eye earlier today.

She lives for hunting mice and lizards.

What're you gonna do? A cat's gotta do what a cat's gotta do.

She catches lots of 'em. Usually, she gives me the thing while it is still alive. At such times, she seems to think that she and I are hunting together. I play along, though my intent is to save the poor thing. I am usually successful.

I feel it is important never to betray one's cat.

I try to disguise the fact that I have rescued the mouse or lizard.

To be a friend to TigerAnn, it is important to be good at sleight of hand.

I think that I have succeeded in disguising my rescues, but in her own way she is suspicious. "Where," she seems to ask, "is my mouse? YOU had it last."

I immediately change the subject.
Women are complicated.

From the archives: Opa the Communist & mandolin picker

I came across some fine photos of my grandfather on my father's side—I always knew him as "Opa." Here he is on his Wanderschaft, a kind of wandering or bumming around that was sometimes expected of young men who had completed their apprenticeship (Opa was a woodworker who soon made models for an airplane manufacturer named Klemm). Opa is at left (c. 1928-30).

Opa's older brother, at the far left, was an ardent Communist. Opa, seen here in a dark coat, was also a member of the party. Here they are in Berlin, I think, with some of their comrades (note the fists: political gestures).

I'm not sure what this is about (c. 1930). Despite the presence of musical instruments, it could be a political gathering. Opa is on the far right. His wife, Louise, my grandmother ("Oma"), is on the far left. They married in 1932; my dad was born in 1933. The two loved to play music with friends in a local band that did traditional tunes. Opa eventually gave his mandolins to my mother, who still has it. I'll dig it up and take some pictures.

(Click on the images to enlarge them.)

Again, don't know what this is about. That's Opa second from left. C. early 30s. He was also active in a wilderness appreciation/protection league/club. My dad has no clue about the activities in many of these old photos. It seems likely that Opa made an effort to hide his former political activities as things grew darker in the 30s. But he couldn't keep his mouth shut and eventually did get into trouble. Friends in town quickly got him into the Wehrmacht, despite his age.

Previously shown picture. Opa is second from left. The flag seems clearly Communist ("We're ready!" with fist emblem). These pictures are likely all pre-Hitler. Communists and Nazis were, of course, mortal enemies and soon faced off in the bloody Spanish Civil War.

Here are my grandmother (left), Opa's sister, and my dad, still a baby, c. late 1933.
The sister's husband died in the war less than ten years later; he was a paratrooper. Young men died like flies. One of my dad's aunts, Frida, lost two husbands during the war! After that, she took up dogs. They lived longer.