Senators Call for Investigation of For-Profit Colleges' Tactics on Default Rates

By Michael Stratford

Washington

Eight Democratic senators are urging the U.S. Department of Education to investigate the tactics they say some for-profit colleges use to artificially lower the rate at which their former students default on federal student loans.

In a letter sent on Wednesday to the education secretary, Arne Duncan, the senators identify two practices on default rates that they describe as manipulations "harmful to