Once little more than a blip on the radar of American higher education, for-profit colleges now enroll about 1 in 10 of the nation’s postsecondary students. And this fast growth has not gone unremarked. The past year has brought unprecedented scrutiny and often harsh criticism of proprietary education from policy makers, regulators, and the news media.

The observations and experiences of interviewees who have worked in both for-profit and not-for-profit higher education suggest that traditional colleges and universities will be badly mistaken if they assume that the travails of for-profits today mean that useful lessons cannot be drawn from their successes to date—and those likely to occur in the future.

For-profit colleges aren't the first, or even the biggest, education lobbyists. They simply learned from the best: America's beloved public and nonprofit universities.

What is the link between the vigorous exercise of executive power and presidential greatness? What lessons can be learned from the past?

With the cost of college rising every year, higher education alternatives such as for-profit providers have grown exponentially in recent years, offering a low-cost alternative to the traditional college model. These approaches, however, face numerous unique higher education challenges, such as persistent questions about their accreditation, the ability to transport...

College costs are climbing, and reformers from left and right are seeking cost-cutting ideas. Here's one: Turn the maligned for-profit school system into the IBM for education.

Even though private equity represents only a small fraction of the financial assets in the American economy, its importance to capital formation and economic growth and the level of controversy it generates is large.