Feeling a loan.

• Author: Miller, Harris N.
• Position: LETTERS - Letter to the editor

The overwhelming preponderance of career college students enroll, graduate, and find suitable, well-paid employment with none of the divisive issues described in Stephen Burd's article, "The Subprime Student Loan Racket" (November/December 2009). It's not surprising that this writer would miss the forest for the trees. He has been a persistent critic of career colleges for years, although his views appear to be shaped in conversations with self-interested plaintiffs' attorneys and not by actually visiting schools or speaking with students, as we invited him to do. Were he to visit, Burd would find a far different picture than the one he paints for Washington Monthly readers.

Career colleges serve 2.7 million students, a high percentage of whom are nontraditional students. Over hall of the student population in career colleges is composed of minorities. Eighty percent are independent adults. Most are first-generation college students. Often, they are economically disadvantaged. These are individuais dramatically underserved by other types of institutions, or who are being turned away these days by state and community colleges with funding cuts and rising demands. In career college, they find a learning environment that adapts to their individual needs, responds to their academic or personal challenges, provides schedule flexibility for busy lifestyles, and prepares them for something more than just receiving a sheepskin: the transition to gainful employment. Over 60 percent of our students (four-year, two-year, and certificate) complete their programs, not the 38 percent cited in your article. We welcome outcome metrics, unlike much of traditional higher education that has fought them tooth and nail.

Reduced economic circumstances and not artful practices by schools or lenders explain why career college students default on their loans at higher rates than the elite institutions that more and more, according to all available research, are recruiting students almost exclusively from the highest socioeconomic strata. Community colleges and minority-serving institutions, also serving economically disadvantaged students, also average higher cohort default rates. Does this mean that poor students should not be...