How the Government Lets For-Profit Colleges Rip Off Students and Taxpayers

Elizabeth Baylor and Robert Shireman discuss why experts say misguided federal audits do little to catch or prevent fraud.

Why did the federal bureaucrat tell the for-profit college it should try to sell more shampoo? The question sounds like the opening line of a joke, but there’s no punchline here. Instead, the answer is part of the story of how predatory for-profit colleges continue to be rewarded with billions of dollars of federal taxpayer money despite repeated evidence that they provide a low-quality education at inflated prices.

We discovered the strange shampoo advice while reading government documents for a new report that examines the audits and inquiries that the federal government uses to monitor colleges’ use of federal financial aid dollars.

The above excerpt was originally published in Time. Click here to view the full article.

The positions of American Progress, and our policy experts, are independent, and the findings and conclusions presented are those of American Progress alone. A full list of supporters is available here. American Progress would like to acknowledge the many generous supporters who make our work possible.