Twelve Senators Urge Education Department to Protect Students While Continuing Oversight of Corinthian For-Profit Schools

Press Release

Today, twelve U.S. Senators called on 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. After failing to provide required data to the Department of Education about its practices, including falsifying job placement data used in marketing claims to prospective students and allegations of altered grades and attendance, Corinthian has now agreed to sell or close its campuses across the country. This places the company's 70,000 current students at risk, but also presents the opportunity to find better educational opportunities for these students. The for-profit college is currently under investigation by 20 states, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Senators signing on to today's letter include: Assistant Senate Majority Leader U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL); Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) and U.S. Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Jack Reed (D-RI), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Ed Markey (D-MA) and Mazie Hirono (D-HI).

"Corinthian College Incorporated represents a risk to students on a scale that could overwhelm the current system of support and safety net provisions for students. Corinthian has shown itself to be one of the worst actors in the for-profit college industry," wrote the Senators. "It is important that the Department continue to hold Corinthian accountable for its actions, but we must not let students be held responsible for the bad actions of this company."

In addition, the Senators asked the Department of Education to answer a series of questions related to the protection of students and taxpayer funding. They also called for the Department to take the following actions:

Require Corinthian to fully inform students of the company's intentions related to the sale or closure of specific campuses;

Prohibit any for-profit company or school that is under federal or state investigation from purchasing or participating in teach-out processes of any Corinthian campuses; and

Use its negotiating power to protect students from mandatory arbitration clauses in Corinthian enrollment agreements that often deny students an avenue for relief through the courts.

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