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RECRUITING FOR STUDENT LOANS LEADS TO 40 MILLION SETTLEMENT WITH COOKING SCHOOL NEXTSTUDENT BLOG

Recruiting for Student Loans Leads to $40 Million Settlement With Cooking School

Thousands of students who took out tens of thousands of dollars in student loans to attended San Francisco s California Culinary Academy, one of 18 cooking schools in the Le Cordon Bleu for-profit college chain, may be getting some of their money back.

Under a pending $40 million settlement in state court, Career Education Corp., Le Cordon Bleu s parent company, has agreed to offer rebates of up to $20,000 to approximately 8,500 students who attended the academy between 2003 and 2008.

In a class-action lawsuit, former students of the cooking school accused it of misleading them about the value of a culinary education and their job prospects after graduation. The students alleged the for-profit school defrauded them with promises of high-paying jobs and encouraged them to take on crushing debt from student loans for expensive programs but provided them with no more chance of finding a high-paying culinary job than someone who didn t go to culinary school at all.

Although the school s website says 48 percent to 100 percent of graduates find work in their field of study or a related field, critics say that the school purposefully uses methodology that includes jobs that don t pay much more than minimum wage and that don t require a formal culinary education.

The academy s tuition ranges from $21,000 for a certificate in pastry and baking arts to $43,000 for an associ...[more]