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For-profit colleges have been popular among veterans, in part, because of offerings in skilled trades and flexibility such as online classes.

Michael Dakduk, the vice president for military and veterans affairs with the Association of Private Sector Colleges, said in a statement: “It is no surprise that members of the military choose our institutions because we provide them with career-focused programs, important support services and flexibility they need to complete their education.”

But, the for-profit sector has among the highest student loan default rates and lowest graduation rates in higher education and has been a target of Democrats. The Obama administration has pushed “gainful employment” regulations that would penalize career-oriented programs that produce graduates without the training needed to find a job with a salary that will allow them to pay off their debt.

Harkin’s report finds that the average cost for a veteran to attend a for-profit college is $7,972, compared to $3,914 for a public college — about twice the price.

The two top recipients of GI Bill money not in the for-profit sector were the public University of Maryland system and the non-profit Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, according to the report.

Earlier this year, the Student Veterans of America issued a report that said a little more than half of the veterans who got college money under the GI Bill since 2009 eventually graduated. The rate was lower than the graduation rate for traditional students, who generally enroll out of high school, but higher than for veterans’ non-traditional peers — those students who also tend to be older and have families and jobs.

It found that about three-quarters of the student veterans who graduated did so from public institutions. Another 15.5 percent attended private universities, while about 13 percent attended for-profit schools.

Another group, the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, has lobbied against what is known as the “90/10” rule that requires colleges to receive at least 10 percent of their revenue from sources other than the federal government. Students using the new GI Bill don’t count toward the limit, so the veterans said they are aggressively targeted by the for-profit industry.

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