Apparently the next stage of Iowa Senator Tom Harkin’s inquiry into for-profit colleges will be about military money. Some 40 percent of the federal tuition money for active-duty military personnel pays for for-profit online colleges.
According to an Associated Press article in the Idaho Statesman:
For-profit college companies are taking in enormous amounts of federal student aid money by recruiting and enrolling military service members, veterans and their families, with questionable returns, according to a new report from…. Sen. Tom Harkin.
Between 2006 and 2010, combined Defense Department and Veterans Affairs education benefits received by 20 for-profit education companies increased from $66.6 million to a projected $521.2 million, an increase of 683 percent, the report says.
According to another piece in the New York Times, Harkin said that,
“For-profit schools see our active-duty military and veterans as a cash cow. It is both a rip off of the taxpayer and a slap in the face to the people who have risked their lives for our country.”
Some 53 percent of for-profit-college students complete their studies with more than $30,500 worth of education debt, though debt numbers do not appear to be available specifically for military personal. [Image via]
