About that ad you clicked on ... for-profit colleges target people of color with misleading advertising about certificate programs that don't deliver.(TO THE POINT)

DAYTIME TELEVISION--including shows like Judge Joe Brown, Jerry Springer, and Divorce Court--features a slew of predatory advertising, including financing for people without dental insurance, rent-to-own furniture and attorneys offering lucrative settlements for car accidents. But no advertisements are more prevalent during this time of day than the ones for the University of Phoenix. Gibbs College, Capella University and other proprietary schools--privately owned, for-profit colleges that offer the promise of a successful career through a variety of certificate programs and degrees in subjects from medical billing and graphic design to massage therapy and criminal justice.

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About half of the students at these schools are people of color, according to Nick Glakas, president of the Career College Association lobbying group, who gave this figure during a 60 Minutes interview in 2005. A full 70 percent are first-generation college students--a number that is much higher than at most nonprofit colleges and universities. The proprietary schools, though, have pricy tuitions, sometimes in excess of $50,000. How do students finance it? With federal and state financial aid grants and loans. These grants and loans account for more than 60 percent of the revenues at proprietary schools.

At first glance, it seems like a good deal. People of color are getting solid job skills and the financing to do it. So what's the catch?

There are several lawsuits now pending against proprietary schools throughout the country by former students who say the got false information like inflated job placement and graduation rates. Former students at Brooks College in California say they were misled by school officials there. The college allegedly counted students who worked part-time in retail stores as successful job placements from their fashion design program.

According to a 2005 report from the Consumer Law Center, the Department of Education does not collect job placement rates, making it difficult to estimate how many graduates fail to find employment. But there is no lack of personal stories. Faye Kaeka, a graduate of the now-defunct Business Computer Training Institute in Tacoma, Washington, left a modestly paying job to pursue what she thought was a high-paying career in computers. When The News Tribune interviewed her a few years later, Kaeka was working multiple jobs just to make ends meet. Her wages were also garnished because she defaulted on her student loan payments.

In many ways, these private schools are continuing a cycle of poverty that starts when they snare students who have few opportunities for economic advancement with relentless advertising.