A big I-Team Investigation exposes a college accused of giving out easy A's to get a fat government check. Your tax dollars are on the line.

You may not know it, but you fork out a lot of money to pay for other people's tuition bills. When we started getting complaints accusing a local campus of handing out easy A's to keep your money flowing, we started digging in.

Times aren't so tough at ITT Technical College. Business is booming.

"We've remodeled and kind of redone a lot of the school trying to accommodate more people," said Scott Tenhagen, Career Services Director at ITT Tech's Greenfield campus, where a two-year degree can cost around $40,000.

"They said between the Pell Grants and the loans, the school usually gets covered," said student Lawrence Thomas.

Covered by all of us -- the taxpayers. Wait until you see what you bought when the I-Team went undercover for a closer look.

It's career fair day at ITT Technical College in Greenfield -- a packed room.

"It gives us a lot of hope," exclaimed student Willie Flowers.

Willie and dozens of other students at the fair have high hopes they've got what it takes to impress the big-name employers.

"There's a lot of competition," said Magnetek recruiter Caitie Bowers. "Employers are looking for people with specific skill sets."

It's why Lawrence Thomas enrolled at ITT Tech's Greenfield campus last year. However, Lawrence didn't have the big money he'd need for tuition. That's where you came in. The school hooked him up with tens of thousands of dollars in taxpayer funded loans and grants, but Lawrence soon got suspicious.

"I'm sitting here figuring, like, I know I should be failing this class," he recalled.

Lawrence got terrible grades on his tests and needed help from his teacher. He got it, but just not the way he thought. Lawrence showed the I-Team his homework scores.

"I could go through here and circle anything," Lawrence explained. "I just gave it to him, and he would say, 'You did it. You got 100%,' and he told us you get 100% for attempting the homework, not for if you did it right."

Either way, it worked. All those 100's on the homework offset the tests he bombed.

"I went to withdraw, because of what was going on," Lawrence said. "It seemed like they did everything they could to keep me from making that decision."

You see, students like Lawrence have to keep up their grades to keep you paying their tuition. That financial aid you fund, keeps these for-profit schools running.

"I would tell you that we work very hard at academic integrity here at ITT Tech," said Greenfield campus director Jarvis Racine.

Racine told the I-Team ITT Tech does homework audits.

Reporter: "The kids are saying to me, 'Hey I just think they're giving me A's so they don't look bad, so they can keep getting my money and the taxpayers' money."

Racine: "I have not heard that as an issue come up here on campus."

It has on other campuses. Five years ago, ITT Tech settled a Federal lawsuit accusing the school of the same problem: Inflating grades to get more grant money in California.

Financial aid experts, like UW-Milwaukee's Jane Hojan-Clark say it's definitely tempting for colleges to boost grades.

"There is that possibility to do that, because the funding is available," said Hojan-Clark

Hojan-Clark is talking about new tax money pumped in to Pell Grants. The Feds say two years ago, students at for-profit trade schools like ITT Tech got more than three billion dollars taxpayers through the Pell Grant program. By next school year, they expect that number to reach $10 billion -- zooming past public trade schools, like MATC, for the first time.

Reporter: "They're capitalizing on that."

Jarvis Racine: "I guess I'm not particularly understanding your point when you say cashed in on that."

Blogs from angry ITT Tech students and staff around the country are packed with ways. One posting read, "anyone can get in to ITT." Another poster said about the entrance exam, "Anyone can pass."

So the I-Team went undercover. We send in our producers to the ITT Tech's Greenfield campus. They met with a recruiter, got the pitch, got the tour, take a simple test, then got swept off to the financial aid office. When we ask the financial aid officer what it'll all cost, she told us, "It goes on how much money you get from the government."

We hadn't applied to the school, but already wants our producer's social security number, right then, to see how much taxpayers might shell out for us.

Then, she assures us, "There are always ways to cover your balance, like, if your worried about money."

Bradley Schwartz of East Troy says he got the same line from the national guys when he signed up with ITT Tech's online school.

"My expectation was to get, obviously, an education," Schwartz said.

You helped him, too, by paying thousands for his Pell Grants.

Soon, Bradley starts to think his teacher isn't really looking at the assignments he sends online.

We asked Bradley to read us the comments his teacher wrote on one recent assignment for a computer forensics class.

Schwartz: "He writes, 'Excellent job on the pro cons list. You were able to generate the required number of points, counter points for each issue,'"

Then, we asked Bradley to read what he actually emailed his teacher:

Schwartz: "Ingredients: 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour, one pinch salt, two eggs beaten..."

Yup, a noodle recipe.

"It's exactly what I handed in for a hundred (percent)," said Bradley.

A good score, but definitely not so good for all of us who helped cover his nearly $30,000 tuition.

ITT Tech just one of dozens of for-profit schools in the US under the microscope. Right now, Congress is considering tougher rules to make it harder for those schools to scoop up so many of your tax dollars. The industry is spending millions trying to stop that from happening.