· Opinion · Review & Outlook The Plot Against Low-Income Students Robert Shireman sold Cuomo on a plan to kill for-profit schools By The Editorial Board March 1, 2019 7:08 p.m. ET New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks at John Jay College of Criminal Justice Gerald Lynch Theater, New York, Feb. 25. Photo: Lev Radin/Zuma Press Robert Shireman was exiled from the Obama Administration after getting caught playing footsie with a short-seller betting against for-profit colleges. We lost track of him, but he was recently spotted in Albany canoodling with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to kill for-profit colleges in the state. Readers may recall that Mr. Shireman executed the government takeover and expansion of student loans in the early Obama years. He then inspired the 2011 Obama gainful-employment rule that was tossed by federal courts. He left the Education Department after news reports chronicled how he had conferred with outside groups and short-seller Steven Eisman. He has continued to drive his ideological war on for-profits from the liberal Century Foundation. The Trump Administration has put a stop to the gainful-employment gambit at the federal level. But Mr. Shireman is now using his foundation redoubt to take his crusade to progressive states. First up: New York. Last year the Century Foundation published a study claiming that nearly half of all students including 72% of blacks who enroll at a New York for-profit college would default in 12 years. It also declared that seven degree-granting New York schools “put a majority of their students in debt only to earn less than $25,000, or the average wage of a high-school degree-holder, ten years after enrolling” and “all of these are for-profit schools.” These findings would be troubling if they were true. They’re not. The spurious analysis was based on stale data from students who began college in 2003 before many for-profits with poor student outcomes closed. Administrators of the data source also warned researchers that state sector-by-sector sample sizes were too small to draw conclusions. Only 80 of the 16,000 students surveyed nationwide attended for-profits in New York. Smaller sample sizes make it easier to manipulate data for political purposes. According to the most recent federal data, the three-year default rate among students in for-profit associate’s degree programs who entered repayment in 2014 is 15.1% compared to 14.9% for those who attend community colleges. About 30% of students who attend public colleges in New York including the four flagship research institutions earn less than $25,000 compared to 36% of for-profits. In other words, for-profits have no worse student outcomes, and their graduation rates are typically far better than community colleges down the road. Yet that hasn’t stopped Mr. Cuomo from using the Century Foundation study as a pretext to shut down for-profits. The Governor has proposed legislation to require for-profit colleges—and only for-profit colle.

1. · Opinion
· Review & Outlook
The Plot Against Low-Income Students
Robert Shireman sold Cuomo on a plan to kill for-profit schools
By
The Editorial Board
March 1, 2019 7:08 p.m. ET
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks at John Jay College of
Criminal Justice Gerald Lynch Theater, New York, Feb. 25.
Photo: Lev Radin/Zuma Press
Robert Shireman was exiled from the Obama Administration
after getting caught playing footsie with a short-seller betting
against for-profit colleges. We lost track of him, but he was
recently spotted in Albany canoodling with New York Gov.
Andrew Cuomo to kill for-profit colleges in the state.
Readers may recall that Mr. Shireman executed the government
takeover and expansion of student loans in the early Obama
years. He then inspired the 2011 Obama gainful-employment
rule that was tossed by federal courts. He left the Education
Department after news reports chronicled how he had conferred
with outside groups and short-seller Steven Eisman. He has
continued to drive his ideological war on for-profits from the
liberal Century Foundation.
The Trump Administration has put a stop to the gainful-
employment gambit at the federal level. But Mr. Shireman is
now using his foundation redoubt to take his crusade to
progressive states. First up: New York.
Last year the Century Foundation published a study claiming
that nearly half of all students including 72% of blacks who
enroll at a New York for-profit college would default in 12
years. It also declared that seven degree-granting New York
schools “put a majority of their students in debt only to earn
less than $25,000, or the average wage of a high-school degree-

2. holder, ten years after enrolling” and “all of these are for-profit
schools.” These findings would be troubling if they were true.
They’re not.
The spurious analysis was based on stale data from students
who began college in 2003 before many for-profits with poor
student outcomes closed. Administrators of the data source also
warned researchers that state sector-by-sector sample sizes were
too small to draw conclusions. Only 80 of the 16,000 students
surveyed nationwide attended for-profits in New York. Smaller
sample sizes make it easier to manipulate data for political
purposes.
According to the most recent federal data, the three-year default
rate among students in for-profit associate’s degree programs
who entered repayment in 2014 is 15.1% compared to 14.9% for
those who attend community colleges. About 30% of students
who attend public colleges in New York including the four
flagship research institutions earn less than $25,000 compared
to 36% of for-profits.
In other words, for-profits have no worse student outcomes, and
their graduation rates are typically far better than community
colleges down the road. Yet that hasn’t stopped Mr. Cuomo
from using the Century Foundation study as a pretext to shut
down for-profits.
The Governor has proposed legislation to require for-profit
colleges—and only for-profit colleges—to obtain at least 20%
of their funding from private sources. No for-profit could meet
this standard because they principally enroll low-income
students with little savings who pay for school with Pell Grants,
federal loans and state scholarships.
Mr. Cuomo also wants to require for-profits to spend at least
50% of their budget on “instruction” narrowly defined as
faculty salary and benefits. Nearly all for-profits would fail this
standard but so would about 90% of all colleges in New York,
including Cornell, NYU, Fordham University as well as many
state and city colleges—if the rule applied to them.
The Governor is trying to jam his plan into this year’s budget

3. but is facing resistance from some Democratic legislators. Many
for-profits are family-owned and have deep connections to low-
income communities. Consider Monroe College in the Bronx,
which provides full scholarships for low-income students and
ranks among the top three institutions in the state for graduating
black and Latino students. The School of Visual Arts in
Manhattan hosts public lectures and art presentations. Two-third
of its students graduate compared to fewer than half of those at
New York City four-year public colleges.
Mr. Shireman wants to use the New York bill as a template for
other states, starting with Maryland and California, and
ultimately for federal regulation when a Democrat wins the
White House. He and Mr. Cuomo are selling this as a way to
help low-income students when the result would be precisely
the opposite.
Creative Production Group Presentations
.
The African Musical Dimension
Africanism: refers to characteristics of African culture that can
be traced through societal practices and institutions of the
African diaspora. Throughout history, the dispersed descendants
of African people have displayed many forms of cultural
retention of their African ancestry.
Music is integral to all aspects of lack community life
In a study of gospel music, ethnomusicologist Mellonee Burnim

4. defines three areas of aesthetic significance in the black music
tradition: delivery style, sound quality and mechanics of
delivery.
African American Music Traditions and Characteristics
As is known to all, the black ancestors of the African
Americans were black people who were trafficked from North
West Africa to North America from the early 16th century to the
end of the 19th century. At that time, West African music was
the main source of black music today.
The types and characteristics of black American music are
diversified. One is the secular folk music as the main tendency
to form grammars such as Ragtime, Bruce, and Jazz; the other is
religious music centered on the church. Secular and religious
American black music presents a strong symbiotic relationship,
interacting and infiltrating each other, and is prominently
reflected in the artist's artistic career. Many black artists live in
the world of religion and secularism. They perform for the
secular evenings on Saturdays and devout religious music on
Sundays. The religious black music also incorporates folk
secular factors.
The Difference between african and European Music
The black music of the New World is not only complicated and
lively, but also affects the people of the White People. It plays
an important role in the development of some American music
forms. The blacks dominate the entire ragtime, the development
of jazz music, and some urban music, such as rock music, blues.
Very important, even for classical music
The characteristics of black American music are their emphasis
on rhythm, the use of drums and other percussion instruments,

5. the division of sounds and the complex rhythm, which are all
manifested in the black American music culture, with strict
rhythm control, which can be said to be West African drum
music Characterization. Call-and-response singing style is
extremely important in Africa, appears in the rotation of jazz
masters, obviously.
Style and Delivery
Style of delivery refers to the physical mode of presentation --
how performers employ body movement, facial expressions,
element of dress, emotion and clothing within the performance
context.
Sound Quality
The objective of African music is not necessarily to produce
sounds agreeable to the ear, but to translate everyday
experiences in to living sound.
Mechanics of Delivery
rhythmic complexoty
Syncopations
Multilinear forms
Polyrhythmic structures
A salient featurn of black music is the conceptualization of
music-making as a communcal/ participatory activity. On
addtion, variation in imbre, song interpretation, and
presentation style mirrors the aesthetic priorities of black
peopel.