A recent Senate report on 15 large, publicly traded for-profit education companies said they got 86 percent of their revenue from taxpayers and have spent a combined $3.7 billion annually on marketing and recruiting.
Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, says the connection is clear: "Their marketing budgets are funded by taxpayers."
On Wednesday, Harkin and Kay Hagan, D-N.C., introduced a bill to try to check the flood of advertising, which has particularly targeted Iraq and Afghanistan veterans for the benefits they receive under the new GI Bill. The measure would prohibit colleges of all kinds from using dollars from federal student assistance programs, including the GI Bill, to pay for advertising and recruiting.
The bill would extend a current rule that prohibits federal dollars from being used for lobbying -- though the lobbying budgets of for-profit colleges are tiny compared to what they spend on advertising.
The bill faces daunting odds in Congress. But it represents a new tactic in recent efforts by some in Washington to curb aggressive marketing tactics by for-profit schools, particularly toward veterans. Military veterans are particularly attractive recruiting targets because they come with generous federal tuition support and also don't count toward a limit called the "90/10" rule, which requires colleges to get at least 10 percent of their revenue from non-federal sources.
