The Business of For-Profit Schools

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In the article The Merits of Online For-Profit Colleges and Universities, three main points are made in favor of “for-profit” online schools.

1. For-profit schools do a better job securing financial aid for students than community colleges or public four-year universities.
2. For-profit schools continue to be pioneers in online education and innovation.
3. For-profit schools disrupt the status quo.

So while for-profit schools continue to get a bad rap, here are some areas where they may be beneficial to society. We’re especially interested in point number 2 because what it suggests is that while traditional schools were slow to adopt the new reality of online learning, the economically motivated for-profit schools were driven to set themselves apart by building better software applications and technology to facilitate online learning.

School is more than a business. But this is proof that sometimes business (competition) results in a net-positive for society.