Biden Administration Will Not Hold Corinthian Executives Accountable

The Biden administration confirmed that it does not have the legal authority to hold former executives of the now-defunct for-profit college system Corinthian Colleges accountable to help recover any of the $5.8 billion in student debt that the administration moved to forgive in early June.

An Education Department spokesman, as reported by Bloomberg, said that because the former Corinthian executives had not signed the Program Participation Agreement, an agreement between the college executives and the Education Department for federal student aid, the department cannot hold them accountable.

In a letter obtained by Politico to Representative Bobby Scott from Virginia, James Kvaal, the under secretary of education, said, “There is no clear path to collect liabilities from entities or individuals associated with the shuttered institutions.”

Many hoped that the Biden administration would make a move to hold the former Corinthian executives accountable for their damages, including misleading thousands of students on job outcomes at their institutions.