Corinthian Colleges, a for-profit education institution with over 70,000 students across the country, may need to shut down as federal regulators demand more data about its students.
The owner of Everest College, Heald College and WyoTech schools says that the Department of Education has slashed its federal funding access after failing to hand over required documents and other information. The company has been in trouble for changing grades, altering student attendance records and sending out tampered job placement data, according to the Associated Press.
This comes in light of a recent crackdown on for-profit colleges by the federal government.
“The Department’s foremost interest is to protect students and make sure they are educated by institutions that operate in accordance with our standards,” said U.S. Education Under Secretary Ted Mitchell. “We made the decision to increase oversight of Corinthian Colleges after careful consideration and as part of our obligations to protect hardworking taxpayers and students’ futures.” The Department also states that it has requested the data “multiple times” in the last five months.
“All of Corinthian’s campuses are now required to wait 21 days after submitting student enrollment data to draw down money for federal student aid,” a U.S. Department of Education release states.
Students at Corinthian’s (COCO) receive $1.4 billion in financial aid annually, according to the Education Department. The company has 100 campuses in North America, along with online classes in such fields as health care, computer technology and automotive repair.
With the news that the company is nearly failing, shares plunged 57 cents, closing at just 28 cents on Thursday. The stock, meanwhile, has already lost 84% in 2014.