Another week in the rambunctious realm of private sector colleges and universities ends on a few dubious notes.

It looks like the latest round of gainful employment–related hi-jinks is going to hit citizens in the pocketbook. A July 22, 2011 post at CampusProgress.org explains:

Since many for-profit colleges obtain nearly 90 percent of their revenue through federal financial aid, most of the blue-chip legal fees for prosecuting these lawsuits will be paid by you and me, the taxpayers, just as we’ve paid for the most of the millions they’ve spent on lobbying, consultants, and advertisements to escape responsibility for their shoddy, overpriced programs.

One for-profit institution that refuses to push back against gainful employment regs is industry giant DeVry. CEO Daniel Hamburger "broke with the industrywide view," a July 22, 2011 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article reports, expressing his agreement with the notion that "schools' eligibility for federal funding should be contingent on their ability to graduate students and place them in jobs without sinking them in unmanageable debt."

Hamburger added the proviso that any regulation should not single out one sector of the higher education sector (and by this he means his, of course) but should be enforced across the board.

Though not pleased with gainful employment regs and not content to obey them without further debate, other career colleges want to show that they too are reform-minded. "At a roundtable discussion with representatives and critics of the colleges on Thursday, Mr. Harkin, the chairman of the Senate education committee, said he was working with the Armed Services Committee to include military aid in the federal share of the 90/10 rule," reports a July 21, 2011 Chronicle of Higher Education article. "The rule requires for-profit colleges to receive 10 percent of their revenue from nonfederal sources to be eligible to participate in the student-aid programs.

The news of the week shows that the regulatory imbroglio is anything but over. Can young Americans look forward to the day when, whether they wish to study project management or public administration, a host of high-quality -- and affordable -- education options will be available to them in every sector of the industry? This remains a most pressing question facing the present generation.