For-Profit Schools See Veterans as 'Nothing More Than Dollar Signs in Uniform'

Nearly 200 for-profit colleges around the country are skirting federal law, a report released last week by the Department of Education finds, by targeting U.S. military veterans for their G.I. bill tuition funds.

Federal law requires that for-profit schools abide by a 90/10 funding ratio, meaning that federal funds must account for no more than 90 percent of the school’s income, and 10 percent must be derived from other sources. But because the law doesn’t count G.I. bill tuition payments as federal funds—the bill only explicitly counts Department of Education funding—private for-profit schools are able to use public money to fuel nearly all of their operations and profits.

Indeed, it seems many schools are explicitly targeting members of the military, whose recruits tend to be poorer than the general population, for their own profits.