The New Republic | The Ominous Big Tech Takeover of Our Community College System by J.J. Anselmi The ghouls of privatization have long had their eyes on the community college system. From Devry to ITT Tech, there have been countless versions of the for-profit junior college, and most of them have the same problems. The process to transfer credits from those schools to four-year universities is often a confounding mess for students. Most instructors at for-profit colleges work part-time and are underpaid, forcing them to teach classes at multiple schools to make ends meet, which makes it difficult to give students the time and focus they deserve. More often than not, these schools lure in students who would be better served by their local community college. As if the community college system wasn’t strained enough by these privatization efforts, the tech bros have recently swooped in and are striving to cause further disruption. Community colleges operate with a combination of taxpayer funding, donations, and tuition revenue. But Campus, a predominantly online school that markets itself as a community college, uses a different financial model. The school has been injected with venture capital funding from the likes of Peter Thiel, Sam Altman, and Joe Lonsdale. Thiel, Altman, and Lonsdale are the types of investor who fund enterprises that could serve a role in remaking the world more to their liking. Like virtually every other of these would-be overlords’ ventures, Campus is a play for even more power and control. And it’s a scammy one at that. Read more: https://newrepublic.com/article/208667/silicon-valley-disrupt-community-college #artificial-intelligence #big-tech #communitycollege #siliconvalley