Corinthian to Sell Campuses to Entity That Has Never Run Schools

In October, Higher Ed, Not Debt and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) partnered to create CorinthianShutdown.org, a site through which students of Corinthian Colleges could tell legislators and federal officials about their Corinthian experiences.  Corinthian Colleges, a for-profit company which operates 107 colleges under Everest, WyoTech, and Heald brands, is closing or selling their schools after the Department of Education found the company ripped off students by manipulating job placement rates.

Today, Corinthian Colleges Inc. announced it will sell 56 Everest and WyoTech campuses to the Education Credit Management Corporation (ECMC).  The Higher Ed, Not Debt campaign has long advocated for protecting students from predatory practices.  In response, Campaign Manager Maggie Thompson released the following statement:

“We hope the Department of Education is correct that ECMC will put student’s interest first, however, ECMC has a storied history of harshly preventing the discharge of students’ loans in bankruptcy.  It’s troubling that ECMC has never run an educational institution, so we wonder whether it has the ability to take over 56 struggling institutions.

“While bailing out 56 schools, the sale treats the more than 30,000 students like financial assets. All students should have the opportunity to opt out of the sale and receive a full refund, including full loan discharges of both federal and private loans.

“Corinthian’s ability to declare bankruptcy underscores the need to allow students the same opportunity. Currently, student loans are nearly impossible to discharge in bankruptcy court, and ECMC is the very company that fights against students’ hardship claims.”

Read additional statements on the sale from Higher Ed, Not Debt campaign partners and field experts:

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