FAN Urges Department of Education to Reject Forced Arbitration in Corinthian Colleges Deal

Fair Arbitration Now sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Education urging it to ensure that the legal rights of students are fully restored in the ECMC Group’s acquisition of 56 Corinthian College campuses. As the Department oversees the purchase, it should insist that ECMC or any other potential owner refrain from using forced arbitration against Corinthian students.

“By contractually removing students’ access to the court system, Corinthian and other for-profit colleges have shielded themselves from being held accountable for actual and potential wrongdoing and harm caused to their students. Students seeking an education to improve their lives and persuaded by the aggressive recruiting tactics and sleek marketing ploys of for-profit colleges, have been cheated and misled by many of these schools about career training potential and have been induced to incur thousands of dollars each in student loans,” the letter said. Read the letter here. 

According to a report by the Consumerist, “Sources with insight on the proposed deal report that ECMC has not made any final determination regarding the use of arbitration clauses should the company successfully purchase the CCI campuses.”

 In December 2014, Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.)  sent a letter to ECMC Group’s CEO David Hawn:  “…regardless of ECMC’s profit status, you have said publicly that with this acquisition you want to “help students.”  You can start by not denying students’ rights to bring claims of wrongdoing before the courts.  As such, I urge you to immediately drop any insistence on mandatory arbitration agreements in further negotiations over the Corinthian acquisition.  This voluntary action would help regain the trust of students scarred by their Corinthian experience and help assure skeptical policymakers, like me, of your commitment to students.”