For-Profit College Executives Make Much More Than Their Higher Education Counterparts [INFOGRAPHIC]

For-profit colleges have been in the hot seat over the past two years, with the federal government and more than a dozen state attorneys general probing fraudulent recruiting tactics and high student debt levels.

But there has been relatively little attention paid to how the Wall Street corporations that own many for-profit colleges pay those at the top.

A Huffington Post analysis of compensation across higher education reveals that CEOs and former CEOs at for-profit college corporations bring home much more than the presidents of some of the most prestigious public and private universities in America, despite questionable outcomes for students. In addition, many of the top earners at for-profit colleges received more in compensation than football and basketball coaches at large public universities - traditionally the highest-paid officials at schools with major sports programs.

Graphics by Chris Spurlock

Methodology: To do the analysis, HuffPost analyzed the top compensation at a sampling of the largest public universities with the highest-paid coaches and athletic directors. We also analyzed compensation for the highest-paid employees at Ivy League institutions, which typically included investment managers and professors, along with university presidents. HuffPost analyzed compensation for CEOs at all publicly traded college corporations. To calculate graduation rates, we analyzed Department of Education data for schools owned by the for-profit corporations listed in the graphic, and the public and Ivy League schools shown above.

Graduation data is based on first-time, full-time students, which is the most consistent federal data available.

The highest-paid for-profit education executive was Gregory Cappelli, the co-CEO of the Apollo Group, parent company of the University of Phoenix. Cappelli was awarded more than $25 million in total compensation last year, which includes more than $19 million in stock that was awarded last year but will vest over the next three years. He will not receive additional stock awards through 2014. By comparison, Coca Cola chief executive Muhtar Kent logged $24.7 million in 2010, and Starbucks chief executive Howard Schultz received $21.7 million in 2010, according to compensation data.

Kent's compensation includes more than $10 million in stock and option awards in 2010, and more than $5.5 million in retirement and deferred benefits. Schultz's award included nearly $17 million in stock and option awards in 2010.

Some of the highest payouts at for-profit colleges went to executives who left years ago, or recently resigned.

Jonathan Grayer, the former chief executive of Kaplan Inc., received a $20 million payment last November - part of a $76 million agreement with the Washington Post Co. when he resigned in November 2008. The plan included $46 million in stock options, along with a $10 million payment in 2009 and a $20 million payment last November, according to a securities filing from the Washington Post Co., which owns Kaplan.

A spokeswoman for Kaplan declined to comment beyond what was in the filing. Elliot Sloane, a spokesman for Grayer's current investment firm, Weld North, confirmed that the $20 million payment was made in November.

"The deal with Jonathan was a culmination of 18 years of work at the Washington Post Company," Sloane said. "Tremendous value was created for Washington Post shareholders during those years."

Another top payout will go to Gary McCullough, who resigned as chief executive of Career Education Corp. amid an internal investigation that found several of the company's health and arts schools were lying about job placement rates for graduates.

His compensation of more than $4.5 million will include continuation of his $824,000 base salary and bonus payments of more than $3.4 million.

By comparison, the highest-compensated Ivy League president was Richard C. Levin of Yale University, who received $1.6 million. The highest-paid public university president was Gordon Gee of Ohio State University, whose compensation package is about $1.9 million.

The highest-paid college coach last year was Rick Pitino of the University of Louisville, who received more than $7.5 million. The compensation included a one-time $3.6 million bonus for completing the duration of his contract.

Much of the compensation for coaches, athletic directors and public university presidents comes from private sources, not taxpayer funds.

UPDATE: Jan. 31, 11:52 a.m. -- This article has been updated with additional information about compensation for Apollo Group co-CEO Gregory Cappelli.

To embed graphics, copy and paste code: <iframe src="http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/Highcharts-2.1.6/examples/execpay.htm" width="900px" height="400px" align="center" scrolling="no"></iframe> <img src="http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/1222execsalaries.gif"> <iframe src="http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/Highcharts-2.1.6/examples/gradrates.html" width="900px" height="250px" align="center" scrolling="no"></iframe>

Comments

[Moravecglobal]

12:03 AM on 02/11/2012

UC Berkeley Chancellor salary $450,000. UC Berkeley (UCB) pulls back access to instate Californians. Chancellor Robert J Birgeneau displaces Californians qualified for public Cal. with a $50,600 payment from foreign students. And, foreign student tuition is subsidized in the guise of diversity while instate student tuition/fees are doubled.

Affordability: Birgeneau doubles instate tuition

UCB is not increasing enrollment. Birgeneau accepts $50,600 foreign students and displaces qualified instate Californians (When depreciation of assets funded by Californians are in foreign and out of state tuition calculations, out of state and foreign tuition is more than $100,000 + and does NOT subsidize instate tuition). Like Coaches, Chancellors Who Do Not Measure-Up Must Go.

More recently, Chancellor Birgeneau’s campus police deployed violent baton jabs on students protesting Birgeneau’s tuition increases. The sky will not fall when Birgeneau and his $450,000 salary are ousted. Opinions make a difference; email UC Board of Regents [e-mail]

[Jay Gould]

04:28 PM on 02/01/2012

Well, is anyone really surprised by these numbers? And that's not an infographic, if you want to see what infographics are, check these out: http://blog.unibulmerchantservices.com/the-month-in-numbers-january-2012.

[reviewingthesituation]

04:50 PM on 01/31/2012

I don't understand why anyone would use these so-called colleges instead of community colleges. In NC, a student who completes a community college two-year curriculum course is guaranteed admission at a state university. And they have on-line courses too.

[suddenfun]

09:25 AM on 01/31/2012

These places are a den of thieves, crooks and weasels, pigs at the trough courtesy our on the take legislators...the whole thing stinks on ice.

[mashtoe]

02:20 AM on 01/31/2012

The President of University of Washington, a state school, makes over $700,000/year. Think about that. It's a tax payer funded school. There is no risk. Yet he makes $700,000. How does that make sense?! It's not like he created the school. Taxpayers built the school. It's not like he makes the rules. The state legislature makes the rules. He really does very little and has no risk.

[Janzee12000]

11:27 PM on 01/30/2012

I hear the incentives for recruitors for these for-profit insitutions rivals that of what they paid ARM lenders...

/oh, it's all on the level though...

[kamact]

10:30 PM on 01/30/2012

Criminal,...and due to the support of the TBTF banksters,...to help funnel public funds

[Michel Couzijn]

08:57 PM on 01/30/2012

If smart people can make a buck or 6 million by marketing and selling something that people really need in their life - such as education - why not look around for other goodies to market and sell?

People need health in their life. Too bad, the marketing and sale of health care is already a b(l)ooming business.

Work? That is what people need too. Sometimes desparately. But selling education is the best way to sell work. Or at least the promise of work, so you don't have to be really responsible for the outcome.

Love! People need love. People need to get and stick together. People need marriage, or one of its on-par-alternatives. So why not sell love? Why not sell marital affection, and everything that usually comes with it? Maybe some investment fund can start selling some sort of marital love to the highest bidders, who need it in their lives. To us. Loans possible. Interest rates reasonable. It's probably love of the same quantity and quality as the graduations in 'for profit' academies but hey, can't have them all.

And it's the pimp who gets the lion's share. In any 'for profit' branch.

[nsx 1]

08:38 PM on 01/30/2012

For Profit education... faculty gets highest pay and have the lowest performance... that is the Right-wing way.

[DIAGUY]

11:01 PM on 01/30/2012

Unfortunately, that has become in far too many cases the "American Way". The laziness and sense of entitlement from particularly those from the "earning class" is becoming a huge epidemic. Since it is very difficult to fine a "conservative" on a college campus you may find that your theory probably will consist of more people with "lefter leanings. But, if they are working at a for profit college the amount a person makes shouldn't be the concern of anyone other than the parties involved.

[nsx 1]

11:31 PM on 01/30/2012

It is not at all difficult to find conservatives on college campuses... since both lefties AND righties "attend" college, the article is talking about the people who "run" the colleges. These For-profit colleges have been ripping off people for decades. And as far as entitlements... If you make all the payments of a 30-yr mortgage on your primary residence, at the end, do you feel "entitled" to a free and clear deed? What if the lender were to tell you, after you had fulfilled your end of the investment, "Sorry, but we have too much debt, and besides, it is actually other peoples deed." "Entitlements" mean just that... you are "entitled" to it. I am speaking specifically of Social Security. I have worked very hard my whole life developing medical break-throughs... I am a war veteran... for nearly 5 decades I have paid a small fortune into Social Security... and now, our corrupt government, and especially the right-wing, want you to think that I haven't earned it. I am entitled to a return on my investment just like any other Wall Street tycoon.

[pmrpmrpmr]

02:27 PM on 01/31/2012

There is no information about faculty pay in this or other sources -- where does nsx1 get this claim?

[nsx 1]

09:09 PM on 01/31/2012

You forgot to read the article... geeeessss

[Brian Hanley]

07:36 PM on 01/30/2012

The big players like University of Phoenix should be prosecuted by the the AG for defrauding the US Government. They should have their billions of fraudulent gains taken and spend the next 10 years in prison.

Fraud. Pure and simple. The business plan was designed to suck in the incapable. It's clearly visible in the court records from various lawsuits against them.

[Brian Hanley]

07:30 PM on 01/30/2012

Those graduation figures would go way way down if the smaller for-profits that don't make it the core of their business plan to defraud the US Government of Pell Grants and student loan money were removed.

According to OEDB, University of Phoenix, the biggest, and the founding "university" has a 4% graduation rate, not anywhere close to the roughly 40% shown. The OEDB used to show this. They no longer list U of Phoenix at all. Why? U of Phoenix is highly litigious.

Bottom line? This article presents the whole sector as if it were all one. It is not. Not even close.

[The ORF in Largo]

07:19 PM on 01/30/2012

For Profit Colleges are ALL FOR PROFIT any education is an unintended consequece. If they
were to lose Federal Student Loan funds they would be out of business tomorrow

[Brian Hanley]

07:33 PM on 01/30/2012

Yes. And the worst of them designed their business model around the idea that the most profitable college is one that causes most to drop out.

The other factor in the dropout rates at for-profits is that those are highly skewed toward the first year. Once the student runs out of student loans, that's it.

Of course places like University of Phoenix game the system as much as possible by carrying them on their books. They have cleaned up a little after lawsuits over things like paying alcoholic homeless $20 each to sign paperwork and profiting over $25,000 per head from it.

[Herb Yood]

06:36 PM on 01/30/2012

Elizabeth Warren, the darling of progressives, makes over $300,000 in salary from Harvard’s Law . Her hourly wage is huge. She also makes money as a consultant and on speaking gigs. She is not the sole reason for high college costs,e but she is clearly a symptom of the problem. The professoriate is out of control.

[Observer963]

06:54 PM on 01/30/2012

Compared to $24 million?! Are you for real?! Seems like you never visited either and were sleeping in the class. That is 80 times more than what she gets. EIGHTY times! In other words that money could pay 80 E. Warrens who is an advocate for consumer as opposed to one bloodsucker CEO.

[Raymond Foret]

08:58 PM on 01/30/2012

Excellent reply Observer. Ms Warren may get a "big" salary but in her case A STUDENT BEING EDUCATED BY HER WILL LEARN WHAT IS RIGHT, NOT WHAT IS EXPEDIENT.

[Republicanistan]

05:42 PM on 01/30/2012

Crony Capitalism at it's finest.

Exploit a Government Program intended to help people working hard to get ahead, donate to Pols to protect your little game.

Make Millions scamming, the American Way.

[numbers wonk]

05:17 PM on 01/30/2012

The owner of Academy of Art in San Francisco has a rather nice Gulfstream II private jet that I frequently see going in and out of Oakland, CA, airport and parked at Kaiser Jet Center.

Now, to a true oligarch at GII is an old dog. It's so noisy there are restrictions on where it can takeoff, it's not fuel efficient, and the maintenance on a 30 year old bird may be high. But it flies at a respectable 400 knots, 41,000 up above the rest of us in commercial, seats you and 11 of your friends plus the 2 pilots, has 3,500+ mile range (you can fly your own fresh lobsters from Portland, Maine to San Francisco without stopping).

But we're not talking about a Yugo, it's like owning an older Ferrari, poor baby.