For Profit schools under attack for recruitment practices.

August 2010, Westwood College, owned by Alta Colleges Inc.
At least 750 former Westwood students and employees have come forward with complaints about the school engaging in deceptive recruiting practices that have left some students with an unmanageable amount of debt, according to a class-action lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Denver, Colorado, in August.

This summer, the multibillion-dollar for-profit college industry has come under the scrutiny of the U.S. Senate. Blog note:(again?!) Some government officials say the industry is regulated too loosely. Senate hearings in August revealed government findings that 15 for-profit schools, including Westwood, were encouraging fraudulent practices among students.

Across the country, other for-profit schools are facing their own legal battles.

In June, a Chicago law firm filed a lawsuit on behalf of students at Illinois School of Health Careers claiming the school engaged in deceptive trade practices. Students say the college failed to inform them that the school's nursing program was not approved by the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Some, such as Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, are concerned that for-profit schools may be failing to adequately inform students of the risks of taking loans they cannot pay back.

Blog ed's note. Senator Tom Harkin was one of several on the senate committee who in 1991, was responsible for US Senate report 102-58. Why do I keep referring to this report? Because today history is repeating itself, and its echoing the 102-58 report. I keep getting deja vu. Only back then we didn't have internet, nor were there any regulations imposed on the industry.

That's right. Senator Tom Harkin heard this stuff before back in 1990 thru 1994 when the congress first discovered it had a problem and needed to impose some reforms on the industry.

And although I do appreciate Tom Harkin and others who today, are also concerned about these students receiving worthless degrees and leaving with debts they cannot pay, I still must stand and Shout, " WHAT ABOUT HELPING THOSE OF US WHO HAVE ALREADY BEEN VICTIMIZED BY THESE SCAM SCHOOLS?!!"

Senator Harkin says he is concerned about students leaving those schools with debts they cannot pay. The same words uttered in 1991. But back then we had Bankruptcy protections. Today students do not.

I truly do not know why ANY one would take out a student loan, when they know they have no consumer protections on them. My car loan, my home loan, my signature loan, (if I went and obtained them) would all have some kind of consumer protections on them, including bankruptcy. But not student loans.

So my question to Senator Harkin is this: are you going to offer some relief for the students of these for profit rip off artists, or are you going to let them languish for 30 years in perpetual debt like you did the 1980s generation of students?