Many years ago this writer was hired to do some computer training at a for-profit school. Arriving to teach one day, he discovered the local sheriff, locking the place up and was quick-talking enough to persuade the sheriff to let him take home his personal computer, which had been stored at the school. As for-profits move to fill the gap and be part of the push for more graduates, many criticize them - and many for-profits feel unfairly tarred by the brush of bad stories. Read more.

Government money, lightly supervised institutions, unchecked supervising bodies and debt-trapped students — it all sounds similar to the subprime-mortgage collapse that is still fresh in America's mind. "The analogies are unbelievable," said Barmak Nassirian of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, linking the for-profit education boom to the savings-and-loan crisis of the 1980s, the dotcom boom of the '90s and the recent mortgage bubble, which was helped along by lax credit-rating agencies and loose regulation.

For-profit school leaders deny the parallel. "It's silly and simplistic," responds Harris Miller, CEO and president of the Career College Association. "The analogy between the [for-profit college] accrediting bodies and the [credit] rating service is absolute nonsense." Corinthian Colleges Inc. downplays default numbers and cites an Office of Management and Budget figure showing that loan-repayment rates have actually risen in the past decade.