Some for-profit colleges, sometimes called career colleges, may be preying on veterans and trying to take advantage of the educational benefits many veterans receive. Senator Dick Durbin, D-IL, plans to introduce legislation to take away the financial incentive for proprietary schools to enrol veterans in their programs. These colleges have been accused of misleading students - not just veterans - who often graduate with certificates and associates' or bachelor's degrees that are difficult to convert into jobs.

Moreover, many students emerge from these programs with a high debt load that quickly puts them into default because they cannot find jobs. These schools actively recruit veterans who receive GI Bill and DOD tuition assistance benefits. The schools benefit financially from having a high proportion of veterans in their classes because DOD and GI Bill Funds are exempt from the rule that prevents these schools from receiving more than 90 percent of their income from federal student loans and grants.

Senator Durbin proposes changing the rules to eliminative the incentive to target veterans and their benefits. First, he has proposed that veterans' educational benefits be included when calculating the percentage of a school's revenue generated by federal aid. Second, he wants the ratio changed so that the for-profit colleges can only receive 85 percent of their income in federal funds, rather than the current 90 percent.

Source: Chicago Tribune, For-profit colleges under attack for treatment of veterans, by Gregory Karp, Jan. 22, 2012.