Blumenthal Statement on Education Department, CA Attorney General Investigation Confirming Fraud at Corinthian College Schools

(Washington, DC) – U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) issued the following statement today after the Department of Education and California Attorney General Kamala Harris announced findings of an investigation into Corinthian College, Inc. schools that identified the schools had repeatedly falsified job placement rates of their graduates:

“Corinthian corruptly cooked its books – deplorable, deceptive practices that preyed on students, veterans and taxpayers. The abhorrent abuses documented by this investigation have been all too common among bad actors in the for-profit college industry – and these findings should spur remedies, not just rhetoric. These practices have taken advantage of young people and preyed on veterans using their post-9/11 GI Bill benefits to help transition to civilian life.

“I commend the Department of Education for working with Attorney General Harris to uncover the outrageous practices at these Corinthian schools and for expediting the process to relieve the debt of the schools’ graduates. Students were lured to these schools with outlandishly false facts about graduate job placement – some schools reporting 100-percent or 85-percent job placement rates, when in actuality their rates were zero percent – and they should not be saddled with debt for plainly useless degrees. I urge the Department to forge additional partnerships with state and federal authorities in the fight to crack down on fraud and deception at for-profit schools, so that future students are not subject to similar suffering in the months and years ahead.”

###