Career Education Report: Recent Episodes
Career Education Colleges and Universities
Career education is a vital pipeline to high demand jobs in the workforce. Students from all walks of life benefit from the opportunity to pursue their career education goals and find new employment opportunities. Join Dr. Jason Altmire, President and CEO of Career Education Colleges and Universities (CECU), as he discusses the issues and innovations affecting postsecondary career education. Twice monthly, he and his guests discuss politics, business, and current events impacting education and public policy.
In this episode, Dr. Jason Altmire speaks with Martha Snyder, a former senior policy advisor at the U.S. Department of Education under President George W. Bush. The discussion delves into the history and evolution of state funding for community colleges in relation to student outcomes. They explore the difficulties and advantages associated with linking state funding to accountability.
Martha, Managing Director of Postsecondary Education Transformation at HCM Strategist, explains the balance between encouraging improved educational results while also ensuring inclusivity for the diverse array of students at community colleges. The conversation also touches on whether student outcomes at community colleges should be correlated to federal Title IV funding.
To learn more about Career Education Colleges & Universities, visit our website.
In this episode, Dr. Altmire talks with Bianca Quilantan of Politico about Governor DeSantis' education philosophies, exploring his focus on both K-12 and higher education. They delve into the influence of his policies on faculty and administrators in higher education and the potential ripple effects of Florida's conservative education policies.
Bianca Quilantan is an education reporter at Politico. Dr. Altmire and Bianca also discuss the intersection of higher education and politics, touching on topics such as short-term Pell Grants for career-oriented programs. Bianca believes that data will likely be a crucial sticking point regarding short-term Pell.
To learn more about Career Education Colleges & Universities, visit our website.
In the past two decades, we have witnessed how technology has drastically shifted distance education in higher education. Dr. Jason Altmire explores this evolution with Dr. Leah Matthews, the Executive Director of the Distance Education Accrediting Commission. Together, they discuss the evolution, challenges, and promising future of distance education in higher learning.
Dr. Altmire and Dr. Matthews explore the upcoming rulemaking on state authorization and the significance of the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (NC-SARA). Dr. Matthews shares her vast expertise and insights, on the future prospects of distance education, particularly with the emergence of AI and other education technologies.
To learn more about Career Education Colleges & Universities, visit our website.
Cyber threats loom over every aspect of our lives, but higher education is especially vulnerable. Dr. Jason Altmire talks with Dr. Ted Reynolds about the rise of ransomware attacks in universities and businesses and how school administrators, faculty, and students can reduce the risk of cybersecurity attacks.
Dr. Ted Reynolds is the Director of the Terrorism Studies Program in the Office of Global Perspectives and International Initiatives at the University of Central Florida. Dr. Altmire and Dr. Reynolds discuss the critical role of cybersecurity in higher education, the impact of cyber threats on sensitive data, and strategies to ensure that third-party vendors practice good cyber hygiene.
To learn more about Career Education Colleges & Universities, visit our website.
concerns and challenges surrounding the proposed gainful employment rule. Their discussion offers insights into the high school earnings test and the use of earnings as an accountability metric in higher education. Delisle's research findings reveal a considerable number of certificate programs at community colleges would fail the high school earnings threshold. Moreover, Delisle raises an important question about the government's role in subsidizing low-income credentials that hold significant value despite their lower income potential.
Delisle is a non-resident senior fellow for the Center on Education Data and Policy at the Urban Institute. He is known for his extensive research on topics such as student debt, college enrollment, and the for-profit sector of higher education.
On July 1, 2023, the new borrower defense to repayment rule goes into effect. Dr. Jason Altmire speaks with Jonathan Helwink, a former senior official at the U.S. Department of Education, about some of the more alarming aspects of the new borrower defense to repayment rule that will impact all higher education institutions.
Dr. Altmire and Jonathan discuss the evolution of borrower defense to repayment and the differences in approach between administrations, concerns about the backlog of claims, the involvement of third-party entities in filing claims on behalf of students, and the implications for nonprofit institutions. Jonathan is an attorney at the Duane Morris Law Firm specializing in higher education.
To learn more about Career Education Colleges & Universities, visit our website.
The truck driving industry holds excellent opportunities for veterans transitioning into the workforce. To make this transition easier and address longstanding issues in trucking, the White House formed the Task Force Movement. In this episode, Dr. Jason Altmire speaks with two members of the task force, Sarah Amico and Cassie Byard, about the trucking industry's future. They discuss how we can address labor shortages, the different educational paths veterans can take to enter the trucking industry, and how trucking companies can best retain their employees.
Sarah shares why trucking jobs are great career opportunities, the factors contributing to the truck driver shortage, and how we can help veterans acquire the proper skills to keep up with trucking innovations. Cassie explains the Task Force Movement’s responsibilities, the problems they are addressing, and the recommendations the task force’s upcoming report will present. They also discuss the best strategies for addressing high turnover rates, retaining employees, and avoiding trucker washout.
Sarah Amico is the Executive Chairperson of Jack Cooper Holdings.
Cassie Byard is the Executive Director of the Task Force Movement and is a Navy veteran.
National Education and Credentialing Summit Report
To learn more about Career Education Colleges & Universities, visit our website.
Rich Camacho is a military veteran who wanted to help other veterans find jobs in corporate America. He made significant headway in this sector but noticed a market gap for assisting veterans and tradespeople in finding blue-collar trade jobs. So he teamed up with his wife, Gina Camacho, and her technology background to create BlueRecruit, a recruiting platform that matches tradespeople with hiring companies. In this episode, Dr. Jason Altmire speaks with Gina and Rich about how BlueRecruit is partnering with CECU member schools and employers to efficiently fill blue-collar jobs with skilled workers.
Gina and Rich discuss the concept behind BlueRecruit and how they developed technology that perfectly matches workers’ experience with a company’s job requirements. They discuss how they engage with students, employers, and schools, and they explore BlueRecruit’s partnership with CECU. Gina and Rich also share the BlueRecruit insights that help employers be more competitive in the job market, how BlueRecruit is growing and expanding, and ways listeners can get involved with BlueRecruit.
To learn more about Career Education Colleges & Universities, visit our website.
Higher education is ripe for a major shakeup, according to Professor Todd Zywicki. Todd is a professor of law at the George Mason Antonin Scalia Law School and talks with Dr. Jason Altmire about student loan defaults, the strengths of for-profit colleges and weaknesses of other institutions, and the lack of competition in higher education.
Todd shares his thoughts on policymakers’ pushback against for-profit colleges and how for-profit schools’ outcomes compare with other institutions. Then, Todd and Dr. Altmire discuss how federal taxpayers fund “country club” college experiences for students and how competition can be restored in higher education’s stifled market.
Find Todd’s book Unprofitable Schooling here.
Read a deep dive on student loans in The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Taskforce Report.
Find Todd Zywicki on Twitter.
To learn more about Career Education Colleges & Universities, visit our website.
In the ongoing debate around short-term program outcomes, one issue is often missed – market dynamics. Dr. Michelle Van Noy discusses the issues of labeling low-pay jobs as low-quality programs without factoring in the labor market.
Dr. Van Noy is the Director of The Education and Employment Research Center at the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations. Dr. Van Noy and Dr. Altmire discuss jobs that are often low pay but important to society, how policymakers should look at short-term Pell funding, and credentialing.
To learn more about Career Education Colleges & Universities, visit our website.
Ric Keller could not afford college, but one act of kindness allowed him to earn not one but two degrees. He later became chairman of the Higher Education Subcommittee in the U.S. House of Representatives. Dr. Jason Altmire talks to Congressman Keller about his new and inspirational book describing his lessons learned about how to achieve your dreams. They also discuss the political opposition to for-profit schools and the erosion of civility in politics.
Ric shares how to frame failure, move past adversity, and how using humor changed his life. Ric and Dr. Altmire also discuss the opposition to for-profit schools, the erosion of civility in politics, and practical steps for restoring this civility in divisive political environments.
Check out his recently released book, “Chase the Bears: Little Things to Achieve Big Dreams.”
To learn more about Career Education Colleges & Universities, visit our website.
America’s aging infrastructure and energy system are in dire need of an upgrade. However, with industries already facing worker shortages, who will do this work? Dr. Jason Altmire talks with Philip Jordan, vice president and principal researcher of BW Research, about which sectors have a shortage of workers and what career schools, trade unions, and others can do to circumvent these shortages.
Many of the jobs needed to upgrade our infrastructure and transition to clean energy are already facing worker shortages. To get more people back into the workforce, we're going to need to make sure everyone knows about these opportunities. Philip says career schools can help by highlighting their graduates' success stories.
To learn more about Career Education Colleges & Universities, visit our website.
With the Senate being 50/50 right now, the majority is up for grabs come November. In this episode, Dr. Jason Altmire discusses key Senate races that will determine who controls the Senate with Matt Moon, deputy executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
Matt tells us what the election landscape looks like and why he believes Republicans will take the Senate. Matt and Dr. Altmire also examine current issues, like big city crime and the Dobbs v. Jackson decision, to analyze how these issues will influence voters’ decisions.
To learn more about Career Education Colleges & Universities, visit our website.
When it comes to colleges and universities, the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer, and some schools are their own worst enemies. Larry Ladd knows this all too well with his over 40 years of experience as a financial executive in higher education. In this episode, Dr. Jason Altmire talks with Larry about how for-profit institutions quickly respond to the market while non-profits are often slower.
Student enrollment numbers are staying stable, but the number of for-profit schools has dropped. Larry and Dr. Altmire explore this phenomenon and other current trends in higher education. They also discuss hurdles the non-profit sector must address to remain relevant, the future of online learning and its implications for higher education.
To learn more about Career Education Colleges & Universities, visit our website.
The midterm elections are fast approaching, and we’re curious how recent events have influenced this election’s trajectory. In this episode, Dr. Jason Altmire talks with Chad Pergram, Congressional Correspondent for Fox News, about the possible shift in the U.S. House of Representatives and how the new session will likely unfold.
Chad and Dr. Altmire discuss the animosity and lack of willingness to work together between the two parties. They also discuss how Chad navigates his job as a reporter in these times of animosity, which party will likely take control of the House and Senate, and the legislative hurdles facing both parties.
To learn more about Career Education Colleges & Universities, visit our website.
Thought leaders in higher education have been concerned about the future of higher education. Dr. Robert Zemsky and Dr. Lori Carrell both agree that to prevent schools from closure, higher education needs to be revitalized. In this episode, Dr. Jason Altmire talks with Dr. Robert Zemsky of the University of Pennsylvania and Dr. Lori Carrell of the University of Minnesota Rochester about the market viability of undergraduate institutions and the strategies they must take to thrive.
Dr. Zemsky and Dr. Carrell co-wrote the book Communication for a Change: Revitalizing Conversations for Higher Education. In our discussion, they share ways that communication can most effectively bring change to higher education institutions. We also discuss what universities are most at risk of closure, distrust of institutions by students, and how three-year degrees might be more beneficial to both students and institutions.
To learn more about Career Education Colleges & Universities, visit our website.
Michael Stratford is a leading higher education reporter in Washington, D.C. As the senior education writer for Politico, Michael writes at the intersection of education policy & politics. In this episode, Dr. Jason Altmire sits down with Michael to discuss the different dynamics in education policy across the last three administrations and what he sees unfolding in today’s education policy issues.
Michael shares his perspective on why there may be more coordination regarding the release of information on the Democratic side and why proprietary schools are disproportionately covered in higher education news. Then, Dr. Altmire and Michael discuss why the media focuses only on negative stories of the past in regard to proprietary schools, and what issues Michael is most focused on heading into the midterm elections.
To learn more about Career Education Colleges & Universities, visit our website.
Congressman Burgess Owens is one of the most interesting people you’ll meet, from growing up in the segregated South to winning a Superbowl, to now serving in Congress. Dr. Jason Altmire talks with Congressman Owens about why a successful future for America starts with education.
In this episode, Dr. Jason Altmire comes live from the 2022 Career Education Convention to talk with Congressman Owens about why he’s so excited about the future of America, how the new Congress will engage with the people, and how he is working to get kids into the workforce with as little debt and as much faith in themselves as possible.
To learn more about Career Education Colleges & Universities, visit our website.
Preston Cooper takes a unique approach to calculating the return-on-investment (ROI) for college degrees. Preston is a Research Fellow at The Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, a non-profit, non-partisan think tank that conducts research on expanding economic opportunity for those that have the least. In this episode, Dr. Jason Altmire talks with Preston about his research that looks at the lifetime financial value of 60,000 different programs.
Preston shares how his ROI analysis method is unique from others and how it measures programs across all kinds of institutions. Preston and Dr. Altmire also discuss the problem in “socially valuable” programs that put students into professions that don’t make a lot of money, and if these programs should be exempt from broad-based accountability. A better way to enforce accountability according to Preston would be gradual financial penalties instead of complete termination of federal funds, which would create incentives for institutions to improve programs.
To learn more about Career Education Colleges & Universities, visit our website.
Michael Itzkowitz is the guru of College Scorecard. While working for the Department of Education, he noticed that some institutions were providing degrees to their students, but weren’t leaving them with well-paying jobs or the ability to pay down their loans. In this episode, Dr. Jason Altmire talks with Michael about how his work now focuses on return-on-investment (ROI) and putting out information that helps ensure students get the best bang-for-their-buck.
Michael Itzkowitz is Senior Fellow of Higher Education at Third Way, a think tank focused on working across the aisle to reform policy on issues including education. Michael tells us how he came up with an ROI metric and how this metric determines the time it will take a student to recover their costs spent on higher education. Michael and Dr. Altmire also discuss how these ROI metrics compare across public and private sectors, where the data stands on cosmetology programs, and the surprising data Michael discovered on which schools are actually providing the best ROI to students.
To learn more about Career Education Colleges & Universities, visit our website.
Higher education institutions are rarely rewarded for successfully building career pathways for students. Jen Dirmeyer recognized this problem and set out to certify colleges and universities based on their workforce outcomes by starting the Workforce Talent Educators Association (WTEA).
Host Dr. Jason Altmire talks with Dirmeyer, managing director and chief accreditation officer of WTEA, about why WTEA focuses on workforce outcomes and quality assurance, rather than how programs are delivered. They discuss WTEA’s Career Impact Audit, the connection between institutions and employers, and having third-party verification of workforce outcomes.
To learn more about Career Education Colleges & Universities, visit our website.
In this episode, we tackle an issue on many people’s minds, student loans. Should there be broad student loan forgiveness? What are the implications of resuming student loan payments? To find out host Dr. Jason Altmire talks with Carlo Salerno an economist and vice president for research at CampusLogic.
Salerno and Dr. Altmire discuss the challenge in “turning the switch back on” for student loans, as well as issues surrounding the ethics of student loan forgiveness, the problem of debt without degrees, the equity problem of selective accountability measures on for-profit institutions, and the future of online education.
To learn more about Career Education Colleges & Universities, visit our website.
In today’s episode, host Dr. Jason Altmire talks with Dr. Sandy Baum, nonresident senior fellow at the Urban Institute, and co-author of “Achieving the (almost) impossible: Consensus on for-profit education.” Dr. Altmire and Dr. Baum discuss if there is common ground between critics and defenders of for-profit institutions to implement lasting regulations.
Tune in to hear Dr. Altmire and Dr. Baum have a candid conversation about if for-profit institutions should be held to different accountability measures, what accountability should look like across all educational institutions of higher education, and can a consensus be reached.
To learn more about Career Education Colleges & Universities, visit our website.
Philosophical bias against proprietary career schools amongst some policymakers isn’t just a challenge unique to America, but also experienced by our neighbor to the north 一 Canada. To discuss how Canadian career colleges continue to innovate in a very different landscape, host Jason Altmire talks with Michael Sangster, CEO of the National Association for Career Colleges (NACC) in Canada.
Michael explains how Canadian career schools handle political challenges geared against them and how they prove their value through helping to fill the current shortage of supply chain workers, truck drivers, personal support workers, and more in-demand jobs. Then, Michael and Jason discuss how Canadian government funding is different from American funding, how immigration and recruitment policies affect Canadian proprietary schools, and how joining the national association gives members unique advantages to connect with like-minded people.
To learn more about Career Education Colleges & Universities, visit our website.
The gainful employment regulations currently being negotiated with the Department of Education would hold only some schools accountable for their outcomes, disproportionately targeting for-profit schools. New data suggests that this is problematic for the vast majority of students attending all other higher education institutions. To discuss the new research and potential solutions, host Jason Altmire talks with Andrew Gillen, Senior Policy Analyst from the Texas Public Policy Foundation, who recently put out a comprehensive study on gainful employment (GE).
Jason and Andrew discuss the types of measures GE uses, how schools in all sectors would fare if the GE regulations applied to them, what the latest data says about the necessity for well-rounded accountability, and how this debate should move forward in the light of new information.
To learn more about Career Education Colleges & Universities, visit our website.
The regulation of for-profit schools and negotiated rulemaking is gaining a lot of traction. Host Jason Altmire sits down with Nicholas Kent, Senior Vice President of Policy and Regulatory Affairs for Career Education Colleges and Universities (CECU) to discuss the impact of negotiated rulemaking on the proprietary sector of higher education.
Nicholas explains the history of negotiated rulemaking and why it’s important, how the process is structured, and who gets a seat at the decision-making table. Then, Jason and Nicholas discuss the key issues that generate strong, differing opinions regarding for-profit higher education, including gainful employment regulations, when new rules will go into effect, and how the current administration influences the rulemaking process.
To learn more about Career Education Colleges & Universities, visit our website.
Students and parents are questioning the value of a degree. Simultaneously, companies are questioning if graduated students joining the workforce are truly career ready. Higher education is feeling this pressure. Host Jason Altmire sits down with Eric Kuennen, Executive Director of Work Readiness Solutions with Kaplan University Partners to discuss this challenge that institutions face.
Eric shares about the current disconnect between higher education and corporate jobs, how industry is getting involved in higher education to better prepare students for careers, the evolution of career services at colleges and universities, how institutions measure if their career services are successful, and why this growth in higher education is critical.
To learn more about Career Education Colleges & Universities, visit our website.
November isn’t too far away. The 2022 midterm elections are quickly approaching and several factors will influence the outcomes. To discuss and analyze the trajectory of the midterms, host Jason Altmire sits down with David Wasserman, Senior Editor, U.S. House of Representatives for The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter.
Wasserman shares his expertise on the likely results for the midterms, the impact of redistricting and gerrymandering in certain states, how the midterms could impact the 2024 presidential election, and at what point he knows it’ll be time to say, “I’ve seen enough,” and call the race.
To learn more about Career Education Colleges and Universities, visit our website.