Here is another debt concern
Two-thirds of bachelor’s degree recipients graduated with debt in 2008, compared with less than half in 1993. Last year, graduates who took out loans left college with an average of $24,000 in debt. Default rates are rising, especially among those who attended
for-profit colleges.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/12/education/12college.html
For-profit colleges in the United States serve about 9 percent of the overall population at higher education institutions nationwide.
The Obama administartion has been engaged in a running battle with the for-profit industry over a proposed rule that would make the commercial schools ineligible for federal aid if too many of their students default on their loans.
The administration has already adopted several new rules that will give the Department of Education more authority over for-profit universities. But the most crucial rule, the “gainful employment” provision, is still awaiting approval, and the industry is pushing back hard.
Under the provision, the education department would examine for-profit colleges and nonprofit trade programs to see how much debt their students accumulated in paying for schooling, and whether the jobs they secured after graduation allowed them to repay their loans. Programs that had particularly high debt ratios combined with very low repayment rates could become ineligible for student aid.
The department calculated earlier in 2010 that about 5 percent of the programs covered under the proposed rule would be forced to shut down.
As the money has flowed to the for-profit university industry, questions are being raised in Congress and elsewhere about their recruitment practices, and whether they really deliver on their education promises.
The General Accountability Office in 2010 issued a harsh report that concluded the for-profit colleges visited by its undercover investigators, posing as prospective students and using hidden cameras to record admission representatives, had engaged in deception or fraud.
For-Profit Schools and For-Profit Colleges - The New York Times
