“The fact is this for-profit company is making money off the GED students,” says Allison B., a veteran Albuquerque teacher of 25 years. She was a teacher in a small non-profit GED school in Albuquerque for several years. The GED is a high school equivalency diploma that allows people who did not complete high school to gain access to jobs and college.
In January of this year, the huge academic testing company Pearson VUE gained a monopoly on the right to produce GED test materials for the entire US, and in fact the term “GED” is now trademarked by them. The GED test had previously been produced by a nonprofit organization. As a result, in New Mexico the cost of preparation materials has jumped from $30 per student to $140 per student, and the cost of the test itself has increased from $40 to $120 per student.
This outrageous cost increase is a tremendous burden to the students, who generally must pay the $120 testing fee themselves, and to the schools that help students prepare for the GED, which are generally underfunded nonprofits. “A for-profit company that’s looking to make money for it’s stockholders is less likely to price down the materials,” Allison observes.
“The students who take the GED are vulnerable. They don’t have jobs, they’re financially stressed, they have not succeeded in school. I would think that society should make it as easy as possible for that kind of student to catch up and that we would help them in any way possible. Any obstacle could be a hurdle that is impossible to get over,” says Allison. She believes the GED program should be free of charge to all interested students.
Allison has an innovative suggestion on how to introduce to each other the two disparate groups of people involved. “For part of each year, people who write the GED tests and study materials should work, for no cost, with students in nonprofit schools so the writers can better understand the challenges of the students.”
As a society, we must invest in the education and skill development of this fragile population. We need their talents and contributions. We need them to be successful. “Do we really require GED students and non-profit schools to use materials from a for-profit company?” asks Allison.
Where is the public discussion about this?
