For-profit Corinthian Colleges slapped with $30 million fine over false job numbers

Heald College.
(Image credit: Facebook.com/CorinthianCollegeCareers)

Corinthian Colleges Inc. has been hit with a $30 million fine by the U.S. Department of Education, which says that the for-profit college operator has been falsifying job placement rates to students in its Heald College system.

Heald College has campuses in California, Hawaii, and Oregon, and the Department of Education found 947 cases of false placement rates, including some instances where Heald College paid companies to create temporary jobs for graduates so they could be counted as placements, the Los Angeles Times reports. Some of those jobs, the Department of Education says, lasted only two days. U.S. Under Secretary of Education Ted Mitchell said in a statement that Corinthian "violated students' and taxpayers' trust," and did not provide "clear and accurate information to help students choose which college to attend."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.