The US Department of Education (DOE) fined Corinthian Colleges Inc. $30 million yesterday after it determined one of Corinthian’s college systems misrepresented job placement rates to both current and prospective students.
“Heald College’s inaccurate or incomplete disclosures were misleading to students; that they overstated the employment prospects of graduates of Heald’s programs; and that current and prospective students could have relied upon that information as they were choosing whether to attend the school. Heald College provided the [DOE] and its accreditors this inaccurate information as well.”
Heald’s violations include paying temporary agencies to hire its graduates for temporary on-campus jobs and counting these graduates as having been placed in a job, counting placements that were not in the graduate’s field of study as in-field placements, and counting graduates who were employed before enrollment in its placement numbers.
In addition to the fine, the DOE ruled that Heald College will not be allowed to enroll students, and it “must prepare to help its current students either complete their education or continue it elsewhere.”
“This should be a wake-up call for consumers across the country about the abuses that can exist within the for-profit college sector,” said Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. “We will continue to hold the career college industry accountable and demand reform for the good students and taxpayers. And we will need Congress to join us in that effort.”
For-profit schools do not actually care about education or their students. They only care about getting as much money out of those attending as they can. Students leave these colleges with an almost worthless degree, a mountain of debt, and have just as hard of a time finding good work as they did before enrolling. Something must be done to stop these schools.
