>> [ ♪♪ ] on "america tonight" - getting schooled. >> now i owe over $33,000 in loans i never signed for, or know where they came from. i could have gone to a real university and had a real degree, and i have nothing to show for it now for-profit colleges - who gets stuck paying the price, a lesson in multiplying debt and why students say it's an

education that doesn't add up. also tonight - the real price of prosperity. >> they came in and took advantage of people the landowners that didn't know what it's like christopher putzel find a native community tapping underground riches, but fears the theft of its future. >> they come in and destroy it. thanks for joining us. i'm joie chen. we begin this evening considering value and values. an energy boom brought some north dakota communities from rags to riches. some are reconsidering the true worth of that great and southern wealth. and the costs of what is left behind. "america tonight"s christopher putzel on a native american community questioning what getting rich really means. >> reporter: this land. nandan hadatza and ericera,

used to be filled with cattle ranches. but over the past seven years, the reservation has been at the heart of an oil boom. hydraulic fracturing or fracking transformed the rolling hills of cattle country. >> what looks like an industrial zone. >> they used to swim in the lake and fish in it all the time when we were kids. >> reporter: richard is an environmental activist spending 12 years working in the oil industry. you were offered money for your land. >> yes. >> reporter: did you take it? >> no >> reporter: why not? >> i understand and seen working in the oil fields, i had a good idea for what it's going to cost, by me endorsing that piece of paper. i said "no i can't do that." they came in and took advantage of a lot of people landowners who this no idea what it was

like what the oil industry composed of. what it does to the environment. >> reporter: the mineral leases offered by the oil refineries, bought sudden wealth to some of the nations. since fracking took off. the tribes collected hundreds of millions in oil money. most flowed to those with property. life for many of the rest is bleak. poverty and health problems are rampant. average life expect si is blow 60 and the tribe is paying a high price for the boom - the threat of poisoning its land. how many times do you get a call about a spill? >> sometimes we'll have three in a day. sometimes a major incident on the weekend. weekly on average, 7, 7 to 8. >> reporter: about one a day? >> yes. >> reporter: edmond baker is the

environmental director for nah station. he has 15 overs to monitor 1300 wells, they pump 386,000 barrels of oil, accounting for a third of oil produced in the state of north dakota. >> i'll come out and admit it, we can't handle it we are not equipped, we are not staffed. you need competent people people who are not only scientifically equipped you need people who know how to understand the law, and enforce the law, and hold companies accountable. >> the worst came in july 2014 around air dan creek. 1 million gallons of brine, salty water, poured from a broken pipeline. >> what we are looking at is the clean-up process.

what i see as destruction to the environment, destruction to our life all because of greed, and a dollar bill. to me a dollar bill is not worth what i see here. or what happened the deepest fear is that the brine might contaminate the lake, a critical tribal water source. >> the opener of the pipe line said last year there was no evidence that scalt water made it into the lake. the -- salt water made it into the lake. the company would not talk to "america tonight". an investigation is ongoing. >> some of these pipes were put into place too fast. prior to my administration, they were. the integrity is questionable in many areas. >> mark fox is the new chairman of mah nation. elected on a pipeline platform,

he said they have little incentive. >> it's called a flip. you build a system put it in place, and sell it. the boom took off too fast. we weren't prepared for it, the government was not prepared for it. state was not prepared. the only entity ready was the oil industry. they knew what they were going to do exactly what they wanted and how they were going to do it. >> reporter: much of the oil development took place in a traditional community of 600. lisa and walter lived in mandarey all their lives. >> every day there's a spill. doesn't matter if it's salt water, toxic waste or oil. >> people are extremely concerned for the environment. why hasn't the road been fixed. all the trucks. we have big huge potholes no one is doing anything about it. we have a family of four killed

out of 22. they were crushed by a truck driver who fell asleep trucks can be seen streaming down country roads at all hours. residents say it's not only a traffic hazard but some of the toxic waste fails to make it off the reservation. >> when did you learn about this? >> this morning, about 9 o'clock i got a call from chief compliance. that looks like sludge at the bottom of someone's tanks. it's not much. it's not making money to go all the way off the reservation, where the hazardous waste disposals are. it's easier to pump it here. these happen on weekends, when no one is working, or at night. >> reporter: when no one is patrolling. >> exactly. >> reporter: they know that. >> they know that.

>> reporter: with few officers patrolling trucks have been dumping brine, and oil waste. this video was taken of a sanitation truck at a remote spot near the lake. >> when i seen the vehicle in that specific area and i was like "why is he down there? what is he doing" he's obviously doing something he's not supposed to do. he's jumping. i grabbed the camera phone and videoed where he was coming out of and asked what he was doing. he basically confessed to me that he was dumping. >> reporter: did he say he was dumping? >> yes. >> reporter: the company's owner told a newspaper that they had permission. the land opener said they had given no permission. the oil industry is getting what

amounts to a free pass. >> reporter: as the environmental director how many fines have you issued? >> two. >> reporter: two. >> two. >> reporter: why only two? >> due to a lack of staffing. a lack of understanding the programme. >> reporter: if you were fully stopped, how many fines would you give? >> on average, one a week. >> reporter: what is the biggest obstacle getting in the way of putting more environmental protections in place? >> government reform. our government has to reform and change the way it does business. >> reporter: ironically what may help is the drop in oil prices cut in half over the past year. it could give nha nations breathing room to get control over liquid wealth. >> if we sell valuable oil out of the ground. at the end of the day standard living for our people should be

greatly elevated for all of our people. we should do things to eradicate poverty, crime, and health disparities. that's what it should represent. if we can't do that it's better off leaving in the ground. this is our land. this is our home. we basically need to protect it. >> from anything and everything. right down to the spill, to the oil capacity that they build within the area here. we need to protect the land protect our water. we need to protect our air. >> my whole family. people in the whole community. it's been affected by this whole thing. this is our home today.

i don't want these people to come in here and destroy it. >> reporter: for this tribal nation a boom that may have gone bust just a few days ago, christopher putzel tells us more than 200,000 gallons of brine spilt on the reservation, came from a broken pipeline it was not as big as the one last july it is a major concern for the community, and its impact is not fully known yet next - rolling back the years. [ ♪♪ ] [ singing ] our correspondent, a veteran of castro's cuba and the surprises she found when she went back. later an expensive education, students at to-profit colleges learnt the hard way who makes a profit on their lessons. a higher alternative is hot on

"america tonight"s website now. the promise ivy league learning at less than half the price. can minerva deliver. that's at aljazeera.com/americatonight.

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in our reporters' notebook then and now, how much cuba has changed since united nations restored relations. in 1929 lucia newman was the first journalist of a u.s. news organization to open a bureau there. she was based there for in my

opinion years, now she returns to see what has and hasn't changed. here are some of her first impressions. >> reporter: what meets the eye tells you a lot about what happens behind the scenes. >> one of the things that is different from the cuba i knew 10 years ago is the number of pre revolution cars that you circulating everywhere. before they were falling apart. and putting in a modern engine, it was against the law. >> reporter: now i'm seeing beautifully restored convertibles everywhere. dusting off and taken out of their garages for 30 years, because the government allowed their owners to use them for driving around tourists. this has helped our lives, says this man who studied to be a computer engineer and now runs a business.

it is an all-important sector of the economy used to be a tightly controlled government monopoly. clearly the communist state decided to free itself of such things such as running restaurants, which are allowed to drive. and so are private rentals. i went to western cuba, where the entire town is renting to tourists. and you can see the difference. the houses are freshly painted, unlike before. now the once exorbitant taxes on bread and breakfast that used to stop enterprises getting off the ground has been lowered. >> it allows a lot of people to improve standard of living and homes. they can afford to make repairs, unlike before. >> reporter: of course the new prosperity is limited. many living off the tourist circuit struggle to make ends met - especially retirees and

those on salaries. i went to visit kubo's cardinal on the day raul castro was meeting the pope. many never thought they'd see the day that their communist leader would say he might return to praying after seeing the pope the communist party has control of the system and the media. access to the internet is better, but still extremely limited. i know that changes in communist cuba have been slow, and in the past many reforms have been regrinded. this time, for the first time, i sense a change is here to stay. that the government is not easing travel and economic restrictions as a temporary and necessary evil as in the past, but as a necessity that is welcomed by almost everywhere.

what i don't know is how fast and how far these changes will go well here is something that could speed things up. u.s. and cuban representatives will met to hammer out agreements to reopen embassies in each other's capitals. next the cost of higher ed, who really makes the money in a for-profit college. students say multiplying debt is a lesson that doesn't add up. what really happens to remains donated to science. that's tuesday on "america tonight".

good evening, i'm antonio mora coming up after "ali velshi on target," op al jazeera, no rebrief for boston bomber dzhokhar tsarnaev reaction to his death sentence, and how it could affect the jury members that condemned him a new clue in the deadly derailment. what investigators are saying about an object that might have hit the train. and musical diplomacy. a major american orchestra making music in cuba

not the maths lessons they signed up for, seeking a way out of low income jobs, they sought higher education at for-profit colleges. students took on expensive loans that turns out could add up to financial ruins. >> one school has filed bankruptcy before it did, lawmakers urged the education department to forgive the loans. a former student shares her struggle with us. >> i decided to go back to school in 2006. i had a college offering a programme. as a single parent i was told you'd basically go to school for free, you get all the grants and stuff from the government federal aid. >> i was okay i'm owing with

it. i was excited to do something, helping people. and, you know being able to network with doctors at the hospital, and then being able to establish a future, and see potential in our life. >> do you guys want to start with an appetizer? rather than waiting tables like you do in school. i wanted a career long term longevity receiving benefits and all that. it was exciting. not exciting any more. >> i have 12 different loans by three different servicers, different amounts, teems and days. i owe over 33,000 in loans that i never signed for or know where i came from. i could have gone to a 4-year university and had a real degree. i have nothing to show for it

now. >> lunch today. >> i never got a job in the medical assistant field. i had doctors tell me straight out because i got - where i got my credit, it's laughable. >> reporter: what happened to jessica king is typical, it happened to thousands of other students. students signed loan documents they did not understand or were not explained to them. one is a promissory note. students sign the document and the school is authorised to take out debt in their name. they were defrauded and lied to. there are approximately half a million affected by this predatory lending scheme. >> this is jessica king and i would appreciate it if this call is recorded please. >> hold on one second you said

because my - i'm under what status. >> it's in a client dispute. >> a client dispute status you can't discuss this with me. do you have like a supervisor or something... >> one moment. >> thank you every day i make the same phone calls. sometimes i'm getting different answers. it's just like i call one person leading me to another person leading me to another person. there's no answers. still no painer work. -- paper work but it's all over my credit report. everest college is one of the schools in corinthian business work. that is based on recruiting vulnerable students. most were low income, the first in their families to go college. they were a lot of single parents, people who didn't know much about higher education, what it was supposed to be like

when you enrol in a school. what it would cost. >> i'm jessica king. i never signed the loans, i'm disputing the loans. i don't think it's fair i can't talk to someone about income based repayment because i made a complaint. >> it is what it is. if you - if you set up a programme that you are admitting to the debt... >> okay. okay. so basically i'm at a standstill until we figure it out. thank you for your help. have a great day. >> absolutely i owe thousands of dollars to everett college, and i can't get a job that i was promise. can't go back to college, like i was promised. it was lies. it was all lies. i had my daughter at 18.

after leah was born i just focused on taking care of my daughter. >> this one is more like a dream-type dress. i did a nice design here. i want to go to parsons new school for design a design school in new york. it cost a - pretty much a nice amount of money but, you know, i'll save up as much as i can to go there. i can't even wait because college is like something you will not forget. >> from an early age children are taught to plan from college. put away for college. i think the college experience was different. i was a single mother at a young age. i had though give up some of those things to put my children first. god willing, she'll go you know from high school to college and get that college experience. i don't care what dollar amount it will take we'll fight for

every scholarship we can get. she deserves that. >> this is what i got in the mail when you were asleep when i opened it. it's my diploma from 2008. i'm getting it in 2015. >> i have to go in there. >> my partner is in the painting business, and a few years back it was time for him to start. he was excited when i started college. we were excited at the opportunity of stability, permanent job placement. we were planning on getting married next year. we are unable to do that. if we were to get married, any loans in my name would be - he would be responsible for. financially we can't take the risk with two children. he works hard he owns a small business, and for them to come in and garnish his money, that would take the roof from over

our chin's head. >> -- children's head. >> we are at the point we don't know what to do. it's literally suffocating her. this causes issues between us. we are arguing about the situation, not with each other. we are stuck. that's where we are at we are stuck. >> that's the costing. this is it exhausting. to be able to want the american dream, to think that's what you would have, and all i got was a scheme a big financial scheme mess. so we are in a situation where going to college in america can make you worse off. that is what happened to thousands of students. they are worse off than before they went to college. the department of regulation is to regulate a higher education, and prevent colleges taking advantage from students. they did not do their job. and people are demanding that

they do their job. [ singing ] >> my family keeps me ground asked hopeful that there'll be a resolution to all of this. i don't think without them that i would be at the place i am or come as far as i am to where i'm at today. you see your kids and you want them to do better, better than you have done in your life. and just looking at children and their future goals, i'll be there, i'll figure one way or another to make sure that their dreams come true. since we heard jessica's storage, corinthian filed for bankruptcy. students will get a seat at the table as creditors in the hearings as a bankruptcy plan is worked out other lessons learnt al

jazeera launches a new series "hard earned" we hear from hard-working americans about their challenges beginning this sunday. that's our programme. tell us what you think at aljazeera.com/americatonight talk to us on twitter or facebook. come back. we'll have more of "america tonight" tomorrow. i'm "ali velshi on target." a co-worker can make your job a living hell with no law in place to stop them. mental illness, the big secret you'd never tell your boss about for fear of getting fired. unless you are the