Project on Predatory Student Lending Clinical Instructor Quoted in The L.A. Times

Clinical Instructor Elieen Connor of the Project on Predatory Student Lending was quoted in a Los Angeles Times  article written by Michael Hiltzik. The article, “SEC gives former execs of Corinthian Colleges, a massive scam, slaps on the wrist” discusses the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) settlement with two former senior executives at Corinthian and how the settlement’s failure to “appropriately hold these executives accountable” follows a pattern in the Trump administration’s tolerance of for-profit colleges.

Excerpt from the article:

“Just comparing the slap on the wrist that the executives have gotten from the SEC to the plight of the students is pretty outrageous, both in absolute and relative terms,” says Eileen Connor of the Project on Predatory Student Lending at Harvard Law School, which has been representing many of the students in court.

. . .

“Clearly there’s been a change in the view at the SEC about culpability and consequences for these people who extract so much taxpayer money and then harm hundreds of thousands of students,” Connor told me. The Education Department has even started to seize earned income tax credit payments from former students to pay for their student loans, even when they have applications for relief pending, she says.

“It seems that the department will go to the ends of the Earth to squeeze money from these students,” Connor says. “When it comes time to hold people accountable who actually were responsible for this situation, it’s a slap on the wrist.”