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While state law-enforcement authorities are cracking down on abuses by private, for-profit colleges and universities, state regulators are doing little to prevent those abuses in the first place, a new report contends.
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The report, by the National Consumer Law Center, or NCLC, says that states and not the federal government provide the most protection for students. But it said most “continue to neglect their critical oversight and consumer protection role.”
There’s no regulation at all in most states of for-profit colleges that offer only online education, for example, the report says.
The Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities was holding its annual convention in Las Vegas, and did not respond to a request for comment about the NCLC report.
Attorneys general in at least 32 states are investigating complaints that for-profit colleges and universities use misleading marketing and leave their students with high debt. Fourteen states have reached the stage of issuing subpoenas.
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