Liu Targets For-Profit Schools

City Comptroller John Liu and the New York City Pension Funds called on two of the largest for-profit universities - DeVry Inc. and Career Education Inc. - to provide information on their students' debt levels and ability to repay their loans.

Career-education programs must disclose students' median loan debt, and graduation rates and job-placement rates, but according to Liu, they do not provide data on their students' post-degree earnings or their rate of repayment, which Liu said would clarify whether students can manage their debt.

For-profit universities like DeVry and Career Education are under federal and public scrutiny because of concerns over marketing practices.

"We need to know if these for-profit degree programs are deceiving lower-income students with empty promises while drowning them in debt," said Liu, a Democratic mayoral candidate.

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