Ed Department finds closed for-profits owe over $6M

Higher Ed Dive 

Rick Seltzer

August 10, 2021

Dive Brief:

• Two shuttered for-profit institutions owe a total of more than $6 million, the U.S. Department of Education’s office of Federal Student Aid said Tuesday.

• RWM Fiber Optics Inc., which offered network cabling and television installation training in California before closing in 2018, owes the department $2.4 million because of student aid violations. The total covers federal financial aid program funds disbursed from 2015-16 to 2017-18.

• Harrison College, which operated 11 campuses in Indiana and Ohio before it closed in 2018, is liable for $3.6 million the government paid to discharge direct loans for borrowers who received closed-school loan discharges. FSA also previously said Harrison owed more than $2.9 million for closed-school discharges.

Dive Insight:

The Education Department cast Tuesday’s announcement as a shot across the bow at irresponsible postsecondary providers.

“Schools that engage in bad behavior or that suddenly close their doors, leaving students out in the cold, will be held accountable, and we expect other schools to pay attention to the actions we are taking today,” FSA Chief Operating Officer Richard Cordray said in a statement.

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