title:  Corinthian Colleges Must Pay Students More Than $1 Billion Dollars
text: Corinthian Colleges must pay $1.2 billion dollars to students. San Francisco Superior Court Judge Curtis Karnow determined that Corinthian Colleges is guilty of misleading students with false advertising. ProPublica published an excellent report on how Corinthian Colleges used predatory tactics to target homeless people and other marginalized communities for recruitment. Once students enrolled at one of the 91 campuses that made up Corinthian Colleges, they almost always ended up incurring a huge amount of debt that they could never pay back.Given that Corinthian Colleges filed for bankruptcy in May with only $19.2 million dollars in assets, it seems highly unlikely that students defrauded by the for-profit college will ever see a payout from the lawsuit.However, students who were defrauded by Corinthian Colleges will get some type of relief. The Department of Education announced on Friday that students will be given a way to have any debt they incurred while attending a Corinthian college forgiven. When Americans invest their time, money and effort to gain new skills, they have a right to expect they ll get an education that leads to a better life for them and their families. Corinthian was more worried about profits than about students  lives,  U.S. Education Secretary John B. King Jr. said in a statement.Despite the fact that students will not receive any money from the lawsuit, that does not mean that this isn t very good news. MarketWatch reports:The judgment could help students in another way, said Ben Miller, the senior director for postsecondary education at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank. It could serve as evidence of Corinthian s wrongdoings for former students who are applying to the federal government to have their loans forgiven because they believe the school violated state law, he said.  It would seem like if there are programs within California that didn t have sufficient evidence for borrower discharge yet, I would think this judgment gives what s necessary,  he said.Overall this is really good news   though it does not really feel like justice truly has been served. No one should have to be given a debt sentence simply for wanting to receive a higher education. Criminal enterprises such as Corinthian Colleges would not have a market to exploit for profit if we had a tuition-free higher education system in the United States. Featured image from Jeramey Jannene/Flickr 