Prevent other people from scamming students out of money.

Right but it'd be worse if you had the student loan debt AND don't get a degree (or at least a reputable one) because it's a scam.

The happy medium is the have enforcement mechanisms of the tends of thousands of existing regulations that would put a scam business out of existence if a DA choose to.

The fact of the matter is that to protect people... you need to have a system where ordinary people can complain, and companies get taken to task.

99% of preventative/reporting regulation is just cronyism.

You do if you want the scam to keep going. See Corinthian Colleges, for example. (Or Trump University's recent settlement, for a more recent example.)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corinthian_Colleges

Have you ever heard of a company called Wells Fargo?

Sure:

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/04/10/politics/trump-university...