for-profit

It’s unwelcome news for students who attended defunct for-profit chains Corinthian Colleges and ITT Technical Institute. The U.S. Education Department is considering only partially forgiving federal loans issued to those students.

With just over a week left in office, the Obama administration continues to crackdown on the for-profit college industry. The U.S. Education Department says hundreds of programs have failed to meet its gainful employment rule.

Corinthian Colleges once owned more than 90 schools across the United States, enrolling students in programs like medical billing and criminal justice. Now, the for-profit company has been shut down, fined by the federal government for the tactics it used to recruit students. In reporting that story, On Campus met with graduates of a Corinthian-owned school working with the state of Massachusetts to try to get their federal student loan debt erased.

The federal government is poised to forgive college loans for thousands of students who attended Corinthian Colleges, the now defunct for-profit giant under investigation for misleading students about graduation and employment rates. Many of these students not only have loans, but are also unable to find jobs.

After coming under intense federal and state scrutiny, the for-profit giant Corinthian Colleges says it will shut down its more than two dozen remaining campuses. Massachusetts and other states have accused the career college of recruiting students with inaccurate job placement rates.

The U.S. Education Department has fined the for-profit giant Corinthian Colleges $30 million for recruiting students with inaccurate job placement rates.

The U.S. Education Department is cracking down on for-profit colleges whose graduates can't find jobs that let them pay off their federal loans.

Under a new rule, career programs will have to show that their graduates are finding gainful employment and have manageable debt loads. If graduates from career programs aren't making enough money to pay off their loans, the government will hold the school responsible and cut off access to federal student aid dollars.

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Earlier this month, the U.S. Education Department froze funding to Corinthian Colleges, one of the country's biggest for-profit higher education institutions, for reporting inaccurate job placement and graduation figures. Critics have long argued the for-profit industry misuses federal aid money at the expense of students and taxpayers. WGBH's On Campus took a closer look at the numbers.