This report is the fourth in a series examining the troubled history of for-profit higher education, from the problems that plagued the post-World War II GI Bill to the reform efforts undertaken by the George H. W. Bush administration. The abuses by trade schools and the resulting student loan defaults that plagued the industry during the Reagan administration continued during the George H. W. Bush administration, with the for-profit sector's student loan default rate reaching an all-time high of 41 percent in 1990. In addition to the pressure generated by media coverage and the Congressional committee hearings, burgeoning budget deficits and bankruptcies in the for-profit sector made it almost impossible for Congress or the Bush administration to duck the issue of soaring default rates at career schools, for which the federal government eventually had to pick up the tab. In the two and a half-year period from October 1985 to June 1988, 167 proprietary schools certified to participate in Title IV student aid programs closed. Fifty-three of those schools closed before their students received all educational services--leaving as many as 10,000 students with $30 million in unpaid and unfulfilled loans. In order to reduce default, the Bush administration proposed and Congress passed default rate restrictions which reduced the number of students at proprietary schools who defaulted on their loans. [For the third report in the series, "The Reagan Administration's Campaign to Rein in Predatory For-Profit Colleges," see ED614465.]