Stimulus!: Cosmetology and Massage Schools Win Big Under Obama

From Florida’s Herald Tribune:

When President Barack Obama touted the passage of the $787 billion federal stimulus bill a year ago, he highlighted billions of dollars for higher education to help retrain workers for the new economy.

But an examination of government records shows that some of the biggest recipients of $17 billion in federal educational grants have been online universities, cosmetology academies, massage therapy schools and other profitmaking career training schools – and not traditional public universities and colleges.

Many of the for-profit schools have spotty graduation and placement records, critics contend, and do not provide the educational foundation of traditional colleges and universities.

In Sarasota County, the Sun State College of Hair Design, the Sarasota School of Massage Therapy and Sarasota’s Fashion Focus Hair Academy combined to receive $689,000 in Pell Grant stimulus funding in 2009, more than the New College of Florida, a state-sponsored school with more than 800 students in Sarasota, and the Ringling College of Art & Design, a private, nonprofit school with about 1,200 students that is also in Sarasota.

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