Corinthian’s Plans To Sell Off Heald College Campuses Didn’t Win Over Government

A week ago, beleaguered for-profit college biggie Corinthian — which operates the Everest University, WyoTech, and Heald College chains — confirmed that it would be meeting with the Dept. of Education to discuss its plan to sell off some of its campuses in an attempt to free up student loan money and allow classes to continue while the school is investigated by state and federal regulators for allegations of misleading marketing and questionable loan application processes. The two parties met on Tuesday, but no deal was reached.

This morning, Under Secretary of Education Ted Mitchell said that yesterday’s meeting with Corinthian to hash out a deal that would have released some $16 million in loans to students did not result in a final agreement.

“While we did not reach an agreement yet with Corinthian officials, we are optimistic that further conversations with the company will produce an acceptable plan in the next few days that protects the interests of students and taxpayers,” said Mitchell in a statement.

Corinthian repeated that sentiment saying it “continues to work cooperatively with the U.S. Department of Education to complete an operating agreement as contemplated by the previously announced Memorandum of Understanding.”

The Sacramento Bee reports that Corinthian’s plan, which has the approval of its board, involves the sale of Heald College campuses.

Heald has campuses in a dozen locations, almost all of them in California, where Corinthian is being sued by the state’s Attorney General Kamala Harris for allegedly providing inflated job-placement information to both prospective students and to investors.

“The Company has not yet secured a buyer for all or any subset of the Heald Schools, but has allocated internal resources to identify potential buyers and evaluate proposals for these campuses,” reads a recent SEC filing from Corinthian. “The Company intends to execute definitive sales agreements with one or more third parties for the sale of the Heald Schools within approximately six months.”

As we mentioned yesterday, if any current or former students at Heald, Everest, or WyoTech want to talk to give Consumerist readers their insight into what’s going on with these schools, shoot us an e-mail at cci@consumerist.com.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist