Are for-profit colleges worth it in California?

From CalMatters Community College Reporter Adam Echelman:

Governor Gavin Newsom wants to train more Californians for “well-paying, permanent and fulfilling careers,” he said last year when he announced his intention to create a master plan for job training.

But many participants in one of the state's largest job training programs end up in low-paying industries, CalMatters found.

Under the program, known as the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, low-income and unemployed adults can receive college aid. About half of those students attend for-profit vocational schools, which the attorney general says can leave students “with a mountain of debt” — and offer little help in finding a job.

The California Department of Employment Development helps vet these for-profit schools and administers this vocational training program, which is administered by employment agencies and job centers across the state. However, the department violated its own policies by allowing local agencies to send students to for-profit schools that were under investigation by state education agencies.

The Department of Labor only stopped recommending four such schools after CalMatters asked about it.

Many of these schools train nursing assistants, medical assistants and truck drivers. But salaries for graduates of such medical programs are low – less than $30,000 a year, according to student results collected by the agency. Truck driving is the most popular profession. It offers better pay, but working conditions are so harsh that most new drivers quit in the first year.

• Abby SnayDeputy Secretary of the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency: “These jobs are a problem. We as a system need to do a better job of advising people.”

Money for the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act comes from the federal government, and Congress is considering a new bill this year to encourage states and regional workforce development boards to partner with community colleges, which are often free in California.

The bill would require California's labor departments to spend more money on job training, but Bob Lanter, a former labor department advocate, warns the bill could backfire.

• Lantern: “Let's not focus so much on how much money is being spent. Let's focus on how many people are receiving benefits and perhaps what kind of benefits they are receiving.”