Howard Schultz and the For-Profit Higher Ed Grift
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Here’s some less-than-shocking news:
Howard Schultz, the billionaire former Starbucks CEO and possible independent presidential candidate, invested millions of dollars and personally owned stock in Capella University, a troubled for-profit college that overcharged the federal student loan program hundreds of thousands of dollars, records show.
Schultz, a co-founder of the venture capital group Maveron, invested in the Minnesota-based university in 2003 and exited when the online institution went public in 2006, according to an analysis of federal records, press releases and Maveron’s website.
Schultz touted the relationship in a 2003 news release announcing Maveron’s $7.5 million investment in Capella’s online education programs.
“Maveron was attracted to Capella’s passion and vision for higher education,” Schultz said, giving Seattle-based Maveron a minority stake in Capella and making it a resource for its management team. “Capella wants to transform education for working adults by making the online experience as compelling and rewarding as possible.”
Let’s just say that Capella’s passion for taking money from taxpayers and desperate students higher education moved him — to an eighth house.
Anyway, I’m beginning to think that dilettante billionaires are more the problem than the solution to what ails American politics.