Hmmm. I like The Street's take on this. To me, for profit colleges (and not just "the bad ones") are a scourge on the US. As a grad student, I took on a side job teaching at one in these parts called Davenport University. I never felt good about it, but I was poor. I was living with no roommates on a grad student stipend. (As Brecht said, "Erst kommt das fressen, dann kommt die Moral.) So I went to the Darkside for extra cash. They paid me $2800 per class, which is decent pay for the amount of hours I put in. Anyway, I taught physics or math, depending on the term. The math was algebra. Basic algebra. And I had to dumb it way down to get pretty much anyone to pass. The physics was ostensibly algebra based physics, a reasonable course for college if you're a non-science major. However, the book they made me use was a book that is used by many 9th grade high school students around the country (Conceptual Physics by Hewitt). I taught what was given me until the first test I administered, at which point I realized that zero (being literal right now) of my students would pass if I taught them 9th grade physics. It was a sad realization, as I didn't really know anything about for profit ed until that time. They take these people's creditworthiness and self worth along with our money and laugh their way to the bank. And the punchline of the joke is that student debt can't be discharged in bankruptcy. If Ford sells me a defective car that I paid $40,000 for, I can sue them. If they sell a hundred thousand defective cars, the federal government can sue them. Somehow, a defective education affects only the mark, and not the grifter.