The now defunct for-profit Corinthian Colleges have been ordered to pay $820 million to students affected by its lying and thieving ways, as well as more than $350 million in civil penalties. This is the decision by Judge Curtis Karnow. I guess he didn’t listen to Marco Rubio’s pleas for leniency for the college organization that helped fund some of his campaigns. Corinthian Colleges filed for bankruptcy last year and so there is virtually no chance that those billions they’ve stolen from people will ever actually be repaid by them but it may help others.
But the judgment could help students in another way, said Ben Miller, the senior director for postsecondary education at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank. It could serve as evidence of Corinthian’s wrongdoings for former students who are applying to the federal government to have their loans forgiven because they believe the school violated state law, he said.
“It would seem like if there are programs within California that didn’t have sufficient evidence for borrower discharge yet, I would think this judgment gives what’s necessary,” he said.
The hope is that decisions like this one will lead to more student loan cancelations, like the millions of canceled student loan debt the Obama administration has forgiven already.