Senator Tom Harkin, whose outspoken opposition to Wall Street generally and for-profit schools specifically has made him a leading voice in Congressional regulation of career and for-profit colleges. His office is set to release a report this month – the second in a series – detailing the horrific ramifications of applying free market principles to higher education, but it seems his office may have much to be concerned about given recent details that have emerged about the Senator’s direct involvement in not only the creation and distribution of faulty past reports, but in back-door dealings that should give any American pause.

Last fall, Harkin released a report that his office claimed detailed a host of transgressions on the part of for-profit or “career” colleges from misuse of student loan money to misleading counseling services and high default rates among graduates. The report was criticized by Senate Republicans as “unfair,” and Republicans boycotted subsequent hearings. It was later revealed that the report, compiled – with Harkin’s help – by the GAO, was faulty and many of its findings either fabricated or unusable and the GAO issued fix:

In November 2010, the GAO was forced to release a significantly changed report. The correction affected 16 of the 28 findings in the original report. The bias of the original report was also reflected in the fact that all 16 revisions were all of the same type: changing flawed statements that cast the for-profits in the worst possible light. Error after error took statements out of context or did not accurately portray what was said.

The report, however, had Harkin’s desired effect. Just days after the report was presented at a Senate hearing, the value of for-profit schools’ stock dropped 14% and companies that ran free-market educational facilities lost over $4 billion dollars.

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Over the last month, Barack Obama has toured a number of community colleges and job training facilities promoting what he believes is the next great job-creation and employment strategy: training young people graduating from high school and adult workers who have been laid off from their initial careers in the skilled trades. Experts estimate that nearly half a million skilled trade jobs remain unfilled because Americans simply lack the expertise necessary to fill these positions, and Obama is aiming to close the widening employment gap and give some semblance of normalcy to an increasingly irritated public by pushing programs that will get Americans back to work: training people to use the shovels for the shovel-ready jobs, if you will.

Of course, there’s a major flaw in his plan. While Obama is out promoting community colleges and job training programs, his administration is actively killing one of the most successful job training operations. Just last month, Obama’s Department of Education passed what is now called the “Gainful Employment rule,” a rule that severely limits the amount of federal financial aid students may receive to attend for-profit and career colleges – the very colleges that are training low-income, disadvantaged, minority and non-traditional students to enter or re-enter a dramatically changing workforce.

Obama’s Department of Education and it’s supporters in Congress claim that career and for-profit colleges have problems: that their students have a low graduation rate, a low employment rate following graduation and have a difficult time repaying loans. These concerns, they say, led to the need to limit the financial contribution taxpayers make to their education and opportunity. It’s understandable, except that the agenda really isn’t saving taxpayers money. The agenda is, instead, creating a preferential environment for incubators of the next Democratic generation: non-profit schools. If the agenda were saving taxpayer dollars, they might be targeting the very programs Obama is asking Americans to further contribute their support to.

Now, obviously, the educational elite are not fans of for-profit education.

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As the war against for-profit schools drags on, several organizations continue to cry wolf in the hopes of landing the final blow to the resilient colleges. One of the biggest players in recent battles has been the New American Foundation. A seemingly ‘nonpartisan public policy institute’, this group is layered with traces of political leanings and loaded assertions.

The most vocal arm of the New America Foundation has been their publication of ‘Higher Ed Watch.’ Editor Stephen Burd remains one of the strongest opponents of for-profit schools having slandered the industry at every turn. Articles such as, “For Profit Higher Education’s New Conspiracy Theory” and “Heads Will Roll At For-Profit Colleges — But Not The Right Ones,” have allowed Burd to preach from his soapbox and reveal the political tendencies of the foundations largest donors.

George Soros, one of the looming figures behind the war against for-profit schools, has managed to force his philosophies into the group by means of a quite sizeable contribution. New America Foundation received between $250-000 and $999,999 from short seller Soros’ Open Society Institute. Steve Coll, President of New America Foundation, receives a base compensation of $271,000. The former contributor at The New Yorker Magazine calls the shots at NAF amid a cloud of outsider influence. With staff salaries paid in part by the contribution of George Soros, NAF’s alleged ‘bi-partisan’ reputation becomes an ever harder pill to swallow.

Even the chairman of the New America Foundation’s board, Eric Schmidt, can be called into question. Schmidt, the Chairman and CEO of Google, not only campaigned for President Obama but is also rumored to be on the short list for Commerce Secretary. Given all the incestuous political ties, it remains difficult to ignore the administration’s ability to force the hand of various non-profits.

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