Durbin: Time For Department To Pull Plus On Corinthian Once And For All
[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today released the following statement after the Department of Education fined Corinthian Colleges nearly $30 million for misrepresenting job placement rates and suspended enrollments at the company’s Heald College locations. Durbin first asked the Department of Education to immediately prohibit Corinthian Colleges, Inc. from enrolling any new students in June 2014.
“The Department’s action against Corinthian’s Heald brand campuses is a long time coming, yet the fact remains that other colleges in the Corinthian system are still enrolling students,” said Durbin. “It is time for the Department of Education to stop sending millions of taxpayer dollars to this failed company and use its existing authority to provide federal student loan relief to students misled by Corinthian.”
Durbin has repeatedly called on the Department of Education to do more to protect students and taxpayers following the collapse of Corinthian Colleges, Inc. which operated under the name “Everest College” at campuses in Illinois located in Burr Ridge, Bedford Park, Melrose Park, Merrionette Park, and Skokie.
On June 26, 2014, Durbin led eleven U.S. Senators in calling on the Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to protect students while continuing to hold Corinthian Colleges, Inc. accountable, including immediately prohibiting them from enrolling any new students. In addition, the Senators asked the Department of Education to answer a series of questions related to the protection of students and taxpayer funding.
In response to a December 16, 2013 investigation in the Huffington Post, Durbin sent a letter to the Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, asking him to investigate Corinthian Colleges, Inc. and their manipulative marketing practices which included a subsidy program for employers to hire graduates temporarily and outright lying by the company through their advertisement of numbers substantially higher than actual job placement rates.
After that letter, the Department requested information from Corinthian related to their job placement rates, denied the company’s new program applications, and eventually placed the company on Heightened Cash Management. At that time, Durbin also called on the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges and the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools – Corinthian Colleges, Inc.’s accreditors – to take action.
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