With an Obama administration clampdown on aggressive or misleading recruiting practices at for-profit schools on track to take effect next year, lawmakers conducting a probe into the industry clashed with industry representatives who say some problems are not as bad as represented.

A Senate panel investigating alleged abuses last week concluded a series of hearings that took a closer look at the sector.

Using self-reported figures from 16 for-profit schools, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-IA, the chairman of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, issued a report from his office indicating a dropout rate of 57 percent from among 960,000 students who enrolled from June of last year to August this year.

"These students take with them thousands of dollars in student loan debt and none of the earning potential that comes with a college degree," Harkin said.

"The bottom line is this: For students enrolling in for-profit schools, graduation with a degree is a possibility, but debt without a diploma is a probability," he said.

The dropout data was part of a wider report involving 30 publicly traded and privately held schools. The institutions together "make up a significant share of the for-profit sector," the Harkin report states.

An industry organization disputed the results, citing National Center for Education statistics which found that while private sector school students were only 8 percent of all students who received federal financial aid - so-called Title IV postsecondary students - 15 percent obtained degrees or certificates from the institutions.

"These ED data indicate that schools in our sector do help students achieve their dreams," the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities said in a statement.

Two major accrediting agencies for industry schools, including one which testified at the Thursday hearing, said accrediting rules require a retention rate of 75 percent and 65 percent from respective accrediting bodies, the ACICS and ACCSC.

Sen. Mike Enzi, R-WY, who is also a member of the committee, highlighted the need to look at a wider range of schools from all sectors of the educational system.

He said the hearing "appears to have been planned in conjunction with the Department of Education's proposed gainful employment rule, discriminating against all for-profit schools while ignoring colleges and universities with the same record."

The Department's "gainful employment" proposal, which is set to take place in several months, includes regulations providing students with more information about school graduation rates and job placement disclosures, ensuring only eligible students receive federal funds, closing loopholes in incentive compensation for recruiters and clarifying courses available for aid.

"There is a clear case for regulating against 'commissioned sales' in admission," said David Hawkins, a director at the National Association for College Admission Counseling.

Hawkins said the Department of Education proposals "would restore the federal government's protection against this persistently troublesome practice."

Hawkins said low-income students are "particularly susceptible" to "misrepresentation" of information about a college or course of study by aggressive recruiters who seek to meet recruitment quotas.

Commissioned sales also "creates an incentive" to hide how the financial aid system works, he said.

"Few seem to be prepared for high pressure sales tactics, and few ... seem aware that a college can be a for-profit company, or that there may be cause to question what recruiters and advertisements are telling them," he said.

Michale S. McComis, the head of the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges, said a survey conducted this year by his organization shows that there is a "very high rate of student satisfaction" in areas related to admissions and financial aid processes at the schools his group accredits.

Among the areas covered, the survey found information about financing was the least clear for students. The survey found 85.9 percent of students were clear about the size of their loan and what their repayment plan would be.

"The problems that do exist are not widespread" among the group's accredited schools, he said.

A recent undercover investigation of for-profit schools receiving most of their revenue from the federal government found that four of 15 colleges visited "encouraged our undercover applicants to falsify their financial aid application in order to qualify for financial aid."

The report by the Government Accountability Office released in August was titled "Undercover Testing Finds Colleges Encouraged Fraud and Engaged in Deceptive and Questionable Marketing Practices."

Four of the undercover individuals posing as prospective students, after registering with web sites meant to link students to schools, "received numerous repetitive calls" from institutions attempting to recruit them, according to the report.

"One fictitious prospective student received more than 180 phone calls in a month. Calls were received at all hours of the day, as late as 11 p.m.," the report stated.

Harkin noted that one school in his report said the report had issued inaccurate results. Harkin said adjustments to the report would be made if the information was indeed incorrect.