Jon Oliver quipped about the seeming lifelong costs of student debt on Sunday’s “Last Week Tonight” before launching into a broadside against for-profit education.
“Essentially, student debt is like HPV. If you go to college, you’re almost certainly going to get it, and if you do, it will follow you for the rest of your life.”
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Oliver’s segment was simply titled “Student Debt” on YouTube, but it was more like “Jon Oliver Takes a Barbed Wire Ruler to For-Profit Colleges.” The comedian-turned-semi-serious-newsman echoed Democrats who have gone after the industry in recent years, criticizing the model for its marketing and recruitment practices, and the employment prospects for students who pursue for-profit education.
“I will say this for for-profit schools: They’ve just given us all a first-class education in the depths of human depravity.”
At the outset of the current Congress and President Obama’s second term, former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) included for-profit education in a speech about new points of emphasis for the GOP.
“We will encourage entrepreneurship in higher education, including for-profit schools. And we will fix the way we subsidize education by making the costs more transparent to parents, students and the millions of taxpayers who help pay some of the bill,” he said.
