Peter Greene comments here on the U. S. Department of Education’s decision to bail out Corinthian Colleges, Inc., a for-profit chain.
Not so long ago, the U.S. DOE pledged to monitor predatory for-profit colleges. Not so, it seems. Not now.
Greene writes:
“Corinthian has a somewhat checkered past. Okay, checkered might be generous. They have grown prodigiously since being founded in 1995, acquiring around twenty other post-secondary institutions from Duff’s Business School to the American Motorcycle Institute. They operate the Everest College chain, plus a few others. They’ve been called “the nation’s worst private college chain” and have been sued more times than anybody seems to be able to count. The State of California in particular seems to be intent on driving them out of business, charging them with the usual predatory practices of marketing to poverty-level folks with promises of careers that never appear. This would also be the chain who got caught (by Huffington Post, of all people) hiring their own grads to keep their grad-employment numbers up.
They are, in short, exactly the kind of for-profit college that the feds said they were going to shut down.”
The announcement was made by Ted Mitchell, Undersecretary of Education, who served previously on the boards of for-profit education institutions and was CEO of NewSchools Venture Fund, which is a major supporter of privatization efforts.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
it seems the for profit eduction sector has stuffed the campaign coffers1
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Of course! This country s FOR SALE to the highest bidder.
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Ted Mitchell’s non-profit was one of the main organizations behind the Vergara lawsuit that—if it survives its appeals—eliminated job protections and seniority for unionized teachers.
He’s oddly selective on which people or for-profit ed companies are deserving of protection and which are not.
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Yet Another Case of Too Big A Kick-Back To Fail ..
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Superb description, Jon Awbrey
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“…the usual predatory practices of marketing to poverty-level folks with promises of careers that never appear.”
Sounds like what a lot of public colleges do, too.
“This would also be the chain who got caught hiring their own grads to keep their grad-employment numbers up.”
Just like a lot of law schools, both public and private.
Face it, the kinds of practices that make schools like this so horrible were pioneered among the “respectable” public and non-profit private schools. I’m not sure why for-profit schools should get so much flak when no one much criticizes more traditional schools. I say call them all out.
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My daughter owes $30,000 for loans used for a for-profit two-year college. None of the credits were transferable. If she had gone to a public college, the debt would have been less and she would have transferable credits to show for her efforts.
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Interlocking directorates abound. Here is one for Corinthian’s Board of Trustees
Dr. Sharon P. Robinson, President and Chief Executive Officer of
American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education
Dr. Robinson joined Corinthian’s Board in January 2011. She is currently President and Chief Executive Officer of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE.)
Dr. Robinson was formerly president of the Educational Testing Service’s Educational Policy Leadership Institute. While at ETS, she also served as senior vice president and chief operating officer, and as vice president for teaching and learning and for state and federal relations.
Before joining ETS, Dr. Robinson was assistant secretary of education with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational Research and Improvement.(info from Corinthian’s website)
Will this investigation put the credibility of the CEO of AACTE in jeaporaty? Doubt it. Problems with Corinthian are longstanding.
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I had not heard of teacher ed programs at Corinthian Colleges so I did several searches, but I could not locate any. Do you know if any exist? The bio for Robinson on the AACTE website lists her position on the Corinthian board as being one of her “private business interests.”
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It’s not that they’re too big to fail, or that the banks in ’08 were too big to fail, but it is important for the
public to think that way so that private investors can be make whole at the expense of the taxpayer.
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What has the Obama Administration done for public community colleges?
They give a lot of lip service to skilled trades training, which I agree with, yet they hire these people who are enamored with whtaever the DC fad of the moment is.
I have been listening to this baloney about the dignity of work from ed reformers since Bush.
Maybe they could promote the LOCAL PUBLIC colleges instead of these giant rip-off chains?
We have “job training centers”. Why has DC abandoned them? Why are they re-inventing the wheel? Because Local Community College isn’t sexy and innovative enough for Thomas Friedman?
I love how these clowns are pretending they invented vo-tech high schools. We have a great one. It’s been here for 30 years. It has a waiting list while they chase online miracle cures. Where do they think “skilled tradespeople” came from before ed reform? Dropped from the sky pre-trained? Scott Walker is looking under tge couch cushions for welders. You know who.used to train welders? Unions, employers and vocational schools.
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Obama and company don’t give a hoot. They are mostly only preppies who went to elite, private schools (UGH), and have NO CLUE. Remember, Duncan actually said that he learned to read in elementary school, learned to play basketball in high school, and I learned to think critically in college. I doubt he learned much of anything. Egads …my kindergarten students could think critically. Maybe children should be running this country. The adults (ahem lawyers and wanna be’s) in charge have made and will continue to make huge messes.
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You are wrong on one thing; the lawyer comment.
We don’t have enough lawyers involved in decision making. We need more, not fewer. Lawyers who actually love law could have helped steer us better, I think. Not all lawmakers are lawyers. More should be. Well-educated ones.
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Vote 3rd party! Ridiculous and disgusting are two words that come to mind.
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I’m with you.
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I’ve voted third-party in 6 presidential elections (1980, 1988, 1996, 2000, 2008, and 2012). You don’t “win” but you don’t feel used and dirty a few months later either.
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There are so many people today who have been marginalized by what now amounts to a fiscally and socially conservative one-party system, except for corporate welfare, that I would not be surprised if the time has come for a third party to win a presidential election.
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Rhetorically, were anti-labor court decisions by conservative judges, a direct result of the votes?
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So they can’t help to ensure that public schools have what students need and deserve but they can bail out a failing for profit college chain. Pathetic.
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If you’re looking for a well lit parking lot, and a perturbed spokesperson, Everest may be right for you.
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I thought capitalism was about the survival of the fittest rugged individual, not depending on government assistance.
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Where is the magic and the invisible hand of the market? That’s right, that only matters when the entity failing is meant to subordinate an “evil” public good that is a “socialistic” enterprise such as public services at large, and public schools in this instance. Then, the cruel hand of the market must be stayed in the name of…….choice, that’s it! Forgot, excellence is out, it isn’t working well.
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As a parent of 3 recent college grads who have student loans in excess of $150,000 among them, what really burns me is that Duncan and the DOE get student loan interest to fund adventures like this one.
Elizabeth Warren’s proposal to reduce student loan interest rates to the LIBOR or interbank rate is a non-starter because Duncan gets $$$ under the current setup.
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This is the type of stuff you can’t make up. How does sustaining their business help those who are already in debt to them? Will their degrees suddenly become worth something so long as they get that piece of paper? Why does sustaining the debt of those who didn’t get federal loans make this OK – why should ONLY federal loans get their money given back?
How much more money must corinthian be getting if they’re giving a refund this large?
SO many questions, why is accountability immediate for those who are simply workers, and delayed for those in management or the risk takers? Moral hazard?
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From what I’ve read, the funds are to support a teach-out. I’ve worked at schools that changed ownership for various reasons and, in my experience, a teach-out is typically done so that students who want to complete their degrees at the school still can, rather than just shutting down the college without warning and leaving all students holding the bag, with no option other than to try to transfer their credits to another college.
Alot of colleges have set rules about the maximum number of transfer hours they will accept and the minimum number of hours students must complete to fulfill the residency requirement for graduating from their school. Transferring out might not be in the best interests of those who are nearly finished with their studies and would have to earn more credits in order to graduate from another school.
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BTW, don’t expect the story to end there. In all likelihood, Corinthian will just be bought out, in whole or in part, by another for-profit college. There are probably many for-profits waiting eagerly in the wings. I’ve worked at two different non-profit colleges that were bought out by for-profits, so those folks seem to be on a role. And generally speaking, neo-liberals don’t have a problem with for-profit education.
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cx: roll not role
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