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For-profit colleges have never been the favourite in the field of education. In recent years, this sector has constantly been under fire by regulators and from the media. It continued to attract a major share of the American students in spite of these prejudices.

There is no doubt that some of the criticism is acceptable. Unprepared students are recruited aggressively by certain for-profit and fly-by-night school. These students find themselves saddled with massive student loan debts and most of them sadly do not complete their courses and land a good paying job.

A federal law that will take effect from July targets many for-profit advocates in a bid to resolve problems faced by certain players. This move does more damage to the sector through unfair burdening of operations on some. This law is a reaction to government data that compares certain New York for-profit school’s graduation and student loan repayment rates to those of non-profit and traditional public colleges.

If it comes into effect, for-profit’s federal tuition loans will be sliced into by the new regulations. According to this law, if any of the students are unable to repay their student loan with the help of their pay, the school’s eligibility for federal loans will be gradually axed, one program at a time. Programs that will be most affected will be the fashion and culinary arts where it takes some time for students to move on to high paying jobs.

Our economy today is such that even elite students from affluent backgrounds are unable to find good paying jobs and this show that there is great possibility of default from students. School of Visual Arts President David Rhodes says that this will only lead to a situation where students will be thrown out of programs.

Enrolment in New York for-profit schools has increased recently with more than 55,000 students attending these institutions. Most of these schools cater to older students, low-income students and minority populations. It is only due to federal financial aid access and flexible programs offered along with a promise of a bright career that these students attend college.

As compared to average state colleges, graduation rates in for-profit schools in New York are higher and in some colleges, loan default rates are lower. Population of students attending all for-profit schools are those who are older and do not have supportive and co-signing parents.

Gainful employment rules are a part of the latest crackdown on the for-profit educational institutions. In order to ensure that colleges offer good value education that in turn will help students with getting a good job to pay their loans, government is forced to step into this sector.

According to think tank Education Trust President Jose Cruz, it is each one of our duty to ensure that for-profits are offering students quality education and serving them well. We must identify those that are not up to the standard and offer them incentives to enable them to make suitable changes. It is time to carefully think out effective plans like this rather than brutally enforcing aid cuts.