The Boston Globe reports that Massachusetts state officials are now investigating the business practices of the University of Phoenix.

The private-sector university's parent company, Apollo Group, Inc., has received a demand for information about its recruiting and financing practices.

The University of Phoenix is not the only school to receive such a demand. Kaplan Career Institute in Boston has also been asked to supply information about its recruiting practices, and Corinthian College is also under investigators' microscope.

The probe is significant; the University of Phoenix is the largest for-profit college in the United States, with over 400,000 students at more than 200 U.S. campuses.

But some of these students claim that the university did not adequately prepare them for the job market, and therefore left them unable to pay for their student loans, the article reports.

The probe in Massachusetts is just one of many happening throughout the United States. What the outcome of these investigations will be remains to be seen. But career colleges are already looking for ways to rectify the problem and ensure their students receive a high-quality education. New modes of assessment are being implemented and the colleges have reformed their recruiting practices. Whether states recognize and reward these efforts remains a question. But there's no denying that for-profit colleges are making a good-faith effort to provide the best product they possibly can for their students.