For-profit schools also take on more marginal students, who may be less likely to prosper in any case.

My father, admittedly an outlier, went from growing up in poverty, to ITT Tech, to Marquette (a Catholic University), to a Ph.D. from U of I Urbana-Champaign in one long continuous path of transfers.

It’s not clear to me that he would have achieved what he did without the initial venue to acquire and demonstrate skills, but I could see how many might not travel that path.

To what extent can we really weigh the experiences of those who do net benefit (presumably the 60%) against those who do not? Perhaps one man’s preying is the answer to another man’s prayers.