Students seeking to accomplish their educational goals at for-profit colleges are almost as likely to be spiraling into a cycle of debt and default as much as they are likely to graduate.

For-profit colleges have been under quite a bit of scrutiny lately for being detrimental to taxpayers and students alike. The complaint is that taxpayers are contributing an astounding amount to these colleges, $32 billion in grants and loans just last year, while the economy is seeing little in return.

Students from these colleges, whether having finished their degrees or not, are being suffocated in debt while maintaining a disappointing amount of funds to help pay them back.

Senator Tom Harkin completed a report based on a two-year investigation of 30 For-profit colleges this year. The report found that nearly all revenue received by these For-profit colleges is gained from federal student aid.

96 percent of students take out loans at for-profits colleges, a staggering difference to students attending a traditional four-year college, somewhere around 50 percent, according to USA Today.

For-profit colleges use tactics to conform to the federal regulation rule that “at least 10 percent of profits must come from sources other than the department of education,” as stated in the New York Times. In example, recruitment to the military has a very strong presence at these campuses in order to receive revenue from Veteran’s benefits. Although this counts as part of the 10 percent, Veteran’s benefits come straight from the federal government.

According to the New York Times, employees hired to recruit students to these colleges are instructed to avoid disclosing cost of attendance with prospective students, and highlight that students pay little out of their pockets if they apply for federal student aid. Although billions are invested in these For-profit colleges, a majority of their students drop out, 54 percent of students at For-profit colleges had dropped out after only attending between one to two years in 2010, according to USA Today.

These students are left with unwanted credentials and piles of debt.

Although For-profit college students make up 13 percent of the country’s total college enrollment, they make up nearly 50 percent of defaults in loans.

“On average, the Harkin report found, associate-degree and certificate programs at for-profit colleges cost about four times as much as those at community colleges and public universities,” said Tamar Lewin of the New York Times.

Due to the Harkin report, suspicions are raised that these colleges are more interested in securing profits from federal aid then educating students. What these colleges do with their revenue, according to a report on USA Today, is spend almost 18 percent on instruction while spending nearly a quarter on marketing and recruitment.

The Huffington Post reported that the Obama administration inflicted new regulations to tackle marketing abuses at some schools, but Senator Harkin is unhappy that these regulations do not branch out further. For several years the Department of Education has attempted to challenge the abuses For-profit colleges inflict in students.

In a federal court battle between the Obama Administration and a For-profit college trade group in June as to whether For-profit colleges should reveal statistical facts about how students manage debts after graduation or dropping out, U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras struck disapproved the regulation claiming the Department of education did acquire enough research to demand such regulation, according to a report The Huffington Post.

As of now students do not have a sufficient amount of protection against the misconceptions this business in inflicting on students.

For-profit colleges should be required to submit this information to prospective students because it is in the best interest of students to plan out their educational goals. If this kind of information is withheld, students will be in the dark about what their education will really cost them.

The fact is For-profit colleges are a business, and they should be regulated as such.