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A student w ho attended a for-profit college found she could have saved $14,000 in student debt by going to a communitycollege.

Editor's note: Whitney Barkley serves as staff attorney at theMississippi Center for Justice, where her work focuses onmonitoring for-profit colleges. The opinions expressed in thiscommentary are solely those of the writer.

(CNN) -- There are promising signs that the Department ofEducation and the Department of Justice might be getting seriousabout holding for-profit colleges accountable after so many of themhave deceived students for years.

The devious practices of one of the country's largest for-profitcolleges finally caught up with it in June after years of accusations ofinflated job placement rates, abysmally low graduation rates, highloan default rates and more when Corinthian Colleges reached adeal with the Department of Education to shut down its operations.In exchange for $16 million in operating funds, Corinthian -- theparent company of Everest University, Everest University Online,Wyotech, and Heald College -- agreed to sell off or close its morethan 100 campuses across the country, while at the same timedenying the allegations.

Then, this month, the company announced it hadreceived a grand jury subpoena from the U.S. attorney'soffice in Los Angeles, where the for-profit is based andwhere nearly a fourth of the school's 107 campuses arelocated. The subpoena, which indicates a possible federalcriminal investigation, requests the company turn overdocuments on its job placement rates, graduation rates,and materials used in marketing and recruitment.

Now, as Corinthian winds down its operations, the Department of

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How for-profit colleges rip off studentsBy Whitney BarkleySeptember 1, 2014 -- Updated 1554 GMT (2354 HKT)

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STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Whitney Barkley: Government isat last making for-profit collegesaccountable

Barkley: Corinthian Collegesmust shut dow n after inf lated jobrates, low graduation rates

Barkley: For-profit collegescharge sky-high tuition w ithoutgetting students ready for jobs

She says for-profits target andrip off minorities, females,veterans, blue-collar students

Whitney Barkley

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Education needs to make sure no student is left struggling after thedemise of this institution.

The 72,000 students trapped on Corinthian's sinking ship are someof our nation's neediest. Like many for-profit schools, Corinthiantargeted students who are overwhelmingly minority, female and lowincome. They are veterans back from Iraq and Afghanistan --Corinthian received $186 million in post-9/11 GI bill funds in 2012 --blue-collar workers seeking to improve their skill sets, and singlemothers who hope more education will help them provide for theirchildren.

Over and over again, for-profit colleges like Corinthianhave failed these students by promising a quick path tofinancial stability through vocational education programs.But in reality, these schools are notorious for chargingexorbitant tuition without preparing students for jobs inthe real world.

On average, tuition at for-profit colleges is four to sixtimes higher than at a comparable public school. A two-year Senate investigation found a medical assistantdiploma cost $22,275 at Corinthian's Heald College inFresno, California, while the same program at FresnoCity College costs $1,650. An undergraduate certificatein paralegal studies at the Anaheim campus of Everest

Colleges costs more than $43,000. At the Anaheim area communitycollege, an associate's degree in paralegal studies costs less than$3,000.

And students at for-profit colleges generally cannot transfer creditsbecause the schools lack the accreditation recognized by traditionalcommunity and four-year colleges. Without a job or the ability totransfer credits, students at for-profit colleges all too often findthemselves unable to repay their loans; for-profit college studentsrepresent just 11% of federal loan borrowers, yet account for nearly50% of loan defaulters.

Many of these issues apply to the deal with Corinthian, and studentsare being left in limbo. Depending on the accreditation each campushas, Corinthian students may not be able to transfer the creditsthey've already earned. Most unbelievably, the Department ofEducation continues to allow some Corinthian college locations toenroll students—without meaningfully disclosing that the school is inthe process of being sold off.

The very arm of the government that should be protecting studentsis aiding the profiteers in a bait and switch.

Corinthian has a long record as one of the worst players in the for-profit education industry. In 2012, when the Department ofEducation released the first metrics to determine the success ofcareer college programs, 44 of Corinthian's programs failedoutright. In fact, Corinthian Colleges performed worse than anyother for-profit chain. But because a lawsuit prevented those metricsfrom being enforced, Corinthian's practices and programs continuedunabated.

Last year, the Securities and Exchange Commission and ConsumerFinancial Protection Bureau announced investigations of thecompany's lending practices. Earlier this year, the Department ofEducation asked Corinthian to document its job placement andgraduation rates, and when the documentation never arrived, thedepartment delayed the release of financial aid to Corinthian'sstudents.

Despite taking $1.4 billion from the federal government in 2012alone, Corinthian can't keep its doors open. It is also underinvestigation for deceptive practices by the attorneys general ofCalifornia and Massachusetts.

On average,tuition at for-profit colleges isfour to six timeshigher than at acomparablepublic school.Whitney Barkley

movement into Syria and Iraq.Turkey must stem the f low

Whitney Barkley says manyfor-profit colleges deceivestudents, charge exorbitanttuitions and make falsepromises

How for-profit colleges rip off studentsSeptember 1, 2014 -- Updated 1554 GMT (2354 HKT)

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California and Massachusetts.

Last August, I represented the Mississippi Center for Justice andother low-income legal services providers on a Department ofEducation committee that proposed regulations to bring greateraccountability to the for-profit college industry.

Our committee worked hard to add teeth to the rules that governfor-profit colleges, but industry trade groups began to pressure theDepartment of Education to water down those standards. Thecollapse of Corinthian makes clear just how important these newregulations are. If meaningful regulations had already been in place,it's quite likely that many of the 72,000 Corinthian students wouldn'tbe facing such tremendous uncertainty today. While we can't fix thepast, we can make steps to start protecting students now.

For those students enrolled at schools that the for-profit is selling,the Department of Education must ensure that the buyer will allowstudents to complete their degrees. It should not allow sale of thecompany to another failing school offering unmarketable degrees.Otherwise, the Corinthian problem will not be solved by the shutdown -- it will simply be a name change.

Corinthian and other similar colleges have made a profit fordecades off the backs of students. As a nation, we must say"enough."

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