In 2015, the Obama Education Department received thousands of claims from former students of Corinthian Colleges. The chain of for-profit colleges had recently shut down following findings that it lied to students about job placement rates.
Predatory for-profits tend to go after potential students who are or have such as people of color, single parents, and older students.
Former Trump administration Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos oversaw controversial policies regarding the defunct, for-profit Corinthian Colleges, which collapsed in 2015 due to widespread fraud.
Federal investigations revealed the company used highly predatory practices and deceptive marketing to explicitly target vulnerable and minority communities, particularly Black and Latino students, single parents, and veterans
2014
California Attorney General Kamala Harris wins a 1.1 billion dollar judgement against for profit Corinthians college for predatory and unlawful practices.
The college intentionally used deceptive and false advertisements and aggressive marketing.
The for-profit chain falsified job placement rates, pushed students into high-cost "Genesis loans", and misrepresented degree offerings.
“For years, Corinthian profited off the backs of poor people – now they have to pay. This judgment sends a clear message: there is a cost to this kind of predatory conduct,” said Attorney General Harris.
2018
Trump Education Secretary Betsy DeVos killed investigations into abuses by prominent for-profit colleges and also dismantled a special investigative team at the department that was formed in 2016, after the collapse of Corinthian Colleges, to continue those investigations.
The Obama administration moved to make it easier for students to get loans erased. But the overhaul was reversed by the Trump administration, which later wrote its own rules making it tougher to get relief. In changing the rules, then-Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said it had become too easy to get loans forgiven.
2021
The Biden/Harris administration forgives 5.8 billion in loans from 560,000 students who were defrauded at Corinthians college.
In September 2025, the Trump administration announced the elimination of approximately 350 million in federal grant funding for Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) and Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs), arguing that programs prioritizing schools based on racial or ethnic composition are unconstitutional and violate equal protection.