HOT AIR: Why Rubio’s first real scandal isn’t going anywhere

Career College Central Summary:

Perhaps “scandal” isn’t the most accurate word to describe the controversy in which Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) finds himself embroiled. It is, however, a matter of contention for which the Florida senator will have to answer and that could arrest the rise in his stock value as a 2016 candidate.
According to a June, 2014 letter obtained by Bloomberg’s Sahil Kapur, Rubio personally requested deputy secretary of education go easy on the for-profit Corinthian Colleges. That institution was accused by federal investigators of deliberately harming students with a “predatory lending scheme.” Even though it was under investigation, Corinthian Colleges continued to accept millions of dollars in federal aid.
- “It has been brought to my attention that the U.S. Department of Education has recently placed extreme financial constraints on Corinthian Colleges, Inc. by restricting the company’s timely access to federal financial aid. It is my understanding the Department of Education has requested extensive documents be provided by Corinthian Colleges for review, and Corinthian has acted in good faith to try to provide these documents as expeditiously as possible,” Rubio wrote.
In the following months, Corinthian Colleges shuttered its 28 campuses, including the one operating in Rubio’s home state, and was fined $30 million by the Department of Education for up to 947 “confirmed cases of misrepresentation of job placement rates.” The college’s 16,000 students who had been enrolled in what they had believed to be reputable degree programs suddenly found themselves adrift.
The cost of higher education has become a major issue in the 2016 Democratic primary. The Progressive Change Campaign Committee’s “ready for boldness” petition demands that the party’s presidential nominee pursue a plan that would make attending a four-year institution a “debt-free” proposition. Hillary Clinton’s aides have confirmed that they are looking into the prospect of fully subsidizing up to two years of college attendance, a policy Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has already embraced.
The far-left regards a college degree as both a fundamental right and a prerequisite necessary to secure even modest prosperity. When President Barack Obama noted correctly that too many college students are graduating with degrees in, for example, art history and are finding themselves with few career prospects, the left lashed out at him and compelled him to apologize for this justifiable albeit unduly specific observation. “Let me apologize for my off-the-cuff remarks,” Obama wrote to an irate student who needed a “safe space” after the president dared speak the truth. “I was making a point about the jobs market, not the value of art history.”

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HOT AIR