By and large we taxpayers have made for-profit colleges an industry. We give them more than $4 billion a year in Pell grants and we loan their students more than $20 billion a year, some of which is never paid back. It is a competitive industry. Some companies do quite well. Unfortunately, a good number of them rely on fraud and deceptive practices to do well. The GAO has just released a study that shows just how bad the situation is.
The GAO investigated fifteen for-profit colleges and found that all of them "made deceptive or otherwise questionable statements to GAO’s undercover applicants". Four of them"were encouraged by college personnel to falsify their financial aid forms to qualify for federal aid". Listen to some of the b.s. that was thrown by the schools.
These colleges are not cheap. The GAO found that they "cost substantially more for associate’s degrees and certificates than comparable degrees and certificates at public colleges nearby". In one case, the for-profit charged $14,000 for a course that was available from a local community college for $520.
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