On January 23, 2014, the U.S. Department of Education sent a sternly worded letter to Jack Massimino, the chairman and chief executive officer of Corinthian Colleges Inc., requesting documentation of certain student records. At the time, Corinthian had a small empire of schools under the brands Everest, Heald, and WyoTech, which—at their peak in 2009-10—enrolled 224,000 students and collected $1.7 billion in federal student aid funds. Fifteen months later, the college chain was bankrupt, with many of its campuses sold off or shuttered amid a series of department actions stemming from damning findings, among them that the company repeatedly misrepresented its educational offerings and the ability of its students to find jobs.
The steps the Department of Education took were sensible and appropriate. The department drew on external allegations to spur the need for greater investigation, collected information, and conducted a thorough review that built a strong case. And it repeatedly kept the pressure on, refusing to fold even against the company’s aggressive pushback.
Read more at The Center for American Progress: https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/higher-education/report/2016/04/12/133263/looking-in-all-the-wrong-places/