Zenith Education Group set out two years ago to turn dozens of campuses formerly owned by for-profit giant Corinthian Colleges into premier nonprofit schools, but a new report from an independent monitor overseeing the transition raises questions about the company’s progress.
The monitor, Clark Kent Ervin of the law firm Squire Patton Boggs, listed 69 instances of “unfair” or “misleading” language in the admissions documents the school provides students, in a review he conducted from September to November. None of those claims violate the law, but Ervin’s analysis suggests the school is not being completely transparent with students.
Now defunct, Corinthian once operated Everest, Heald College and WyoTech schools around the country. Before it shut down in 2015, critics said the company lured students into enrolling with unrealistic promises of employment. Yet the report suggests that Zenith, the new operator of more than 50 Corinthian campuses, is tiptoeing into the same troubled ground.
A course catalog describing the massage therapy program, for instance, says “upon the successful completion of this program, graduates will have received the education necessary to attain a career.” Ervin argued that the word “attain” could mislead students into thinking they’re guaranteed a job upon graduation.
In its admission agreement, Zenith states that it does not guarantee employment for graduates. But Ervin wants Zenith to go a step further, adding language that would ensure the school does not “imply” that employment is a certainty.