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A few months back, the Minnesota Office of Higher Education decided to take a deep look at for-profit schools in the state.

This week, that decision seems pretty smart and plenty necessary.

A report released Monday by a U.S. Senate committee blasts for-profit colleges for too-high tuition and dropout rates and too little spending on instruction. The investigation looked into 30 for-profit colleges, including three in Minnesota -- Capella Education, Walden LLC and Rasmussen College.

While it praised Walden's low withdrawal and default rates as "perhaps the best of any company examined," it criticized Rasmussen for "some of the worst student retention rates of any company examined by the committee."

Larry Pogemiller, director of the Minnesota office, said he was concerned about the report's assertion that 63 percent of students leave Rasmussen without completing a degree.

"That 63 percent jumped out at me," Pogemiller said. "I went, 'Whoa.'"

Recently, Rasumussen started a "qualified enrollment" program to reduce dropouts. Pogemiller is eager to learn how that has affected the school's statistics.

A smaller slice of Minnesota students who attended for-profit schools default on their federal loans. In 2009, their default rate was 6.4 percent, compared to 15.0 percent nationwide. In fact, a greater share of students who attended Minnesota's public, two-year schools defaulted -- 9.7 percent.

Plus, the Minnesota Office of Higher Education gets few complaints about for-profit schools, Pogemiller said.

"Our sense has been that the really outrageous abuses that are being seen nationally have not evidenced themselves here, to date."

Still, the office is set to do a detailed analysis of its for-profits, to be complete by the legislative session.

"Even if things aren't as alarming," he said, "that doesn't mean that there's not some work that needs to be done."

Jenna Ross • 612-673-7168

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On campus beat: Minn. to examine for-profit colleges

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