I wanted to write this post to share with you a video I had recently seen, from the show “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver”. If you’ve never heard of this show it’s a late night talk show obviously featuring John Oliver (who would have guessed) that airs once a week on HBO and discusses current events that happened in the past week. I’m a pretty big fan of the Daily Show, though I don’t watch it that often I always find the satire on the news networks to be enjoyable. John Oliver came from the Daily Show originally where he played a “news” correspondent, and also being a big fan of the show Community where he also has a recurring role.
On an episode of his show a few weeks ago, he spoke about the student debt situation here in the United States and at the time I was actually feeling a bit down about my student loans so hearing a humorous perspective on that was just what I needed. He gives a good summary of the student loan situation and the overall picture right now, along with a brief history of how student loans came about as well.
The main focus of his piece actually comes down on for-profit universities and how they treat their students which was something that I wasn’t fully aware of. I knew that for-profit universities had a bad rep and that the statistics were not in their favor, but I didn’t realize it was THIS bad. They account for 31% of all student loan debt in the United States, yet they only have 13% of the student population. Something is not adding up here at all!
Here’s the video (warning there is a lot of NSFW language and humor):
John Oliver is a funny man, I enjoy some of his takes on key issues. For the most part for-profit universities are a scam, ask anyone who has ever worked in their “financial aid” department. I would like to see more technical schools and tuition-free schools where you work while attending classes to avoid college debt.
Yeah, I’ve been loving his new show. Puts a different perspective on a lot of issues that don’t really get that much press and the humor just adds even more to the story.
It’s a shame that a lot of the technical schools that advertise on TV and on the internet are very similar to these these for-profit colleges in the fact that many are left high and dry after graduating.