Students at Shuttered Corinthian Campuses Need Congress to Restore their Pell Grant Eligibility

Yesterday, Corinthian Colleges abruptly closed its remaining 30 campuses in California, Arizona, Hawaii, New York, and Oregon, where 16,000 students were enrolled. While nothing can give these students back the time they spent at Corinthian, they deserve a fresh start.

The good news is that the Higher Education Act (HEA) provides for the discharge of students’ federal loans if a school closes before students finish their programs. In fact, the HEA says “the Secretary shall discharge” students’ loans, and the Education Department’s regulations specify that the Secretary will mail each borrower a discharge application and an explanation of the qualifications and procedures for obtaining a discharge.

The bad news is that the HEA does nothing similar to restore students’ eligibility for Pell Grants, which needy students can receive for no more than six academic years. Because the law doesn’t reset the clock on a student’s eligibility for Pell Grants when a school shuts down, low-income students may not be eligible for enough aid to complete a program anywhere else.

For example, the students enrolled in the pharmacy technician certificate program at Corinthian’s Everest College in West Los Angeles – which cost more than $11,000, and had a 25% job placement rate and a 35% student loan default rate – will be able to get their federal loans discharged, but they won’t get their Pell Grant eligibility restored to what it was before they enrolled at Everest. As a result, they may not have enough Pell Grant eligibility left to complete the much lower cost pharmacy tech program at the nearby community college.

For the more than 12,000 Pell Grant recipients estimated to be enrolled at the Corinthian campuses that suddenly closed yesterday, this is an oversight needing swift correction.

How did Pell Grants get left out of the closed-school provisions? Prior to 2008, students could receive Pell Grants for as long as they were making satisfactory academic progress towards a degree or certificate. So if a school closed before a student could finish, the student didn’t need to worry about their Pell Grant eligibility running out.

However, in 2008 Congress limited future Pell Grant eligibility to nine years.  Then, in 2011 Congress lowered this lifetime limit to six years and applied the new limit immediately and retroactively to all students, including those just a semester away from completing their degrees.

Unfortunately, Congress didn’t amend the HEA to restore students’ eligibility for Pell Grants when a school closes before they can finish. This was likely an oversight, not a conscious policy decision. As a result, the lowest income students at Corinthian campuses may not have enough Pell Grant eligibility left to complete a program at another school.

It’s time to fix this harmful omission. In the last Congress, Representative Janice Hahn introduced the Protecting Students from Failing Institutions Act (HR 4860) to restore Pell Grant eligibility for students at campuses that close. We recommend going a step further: Pell Grant eligibility should be restored for any student who has their federal student loans discharged, either because their school closed or because of school fraud. Current and former Corinthian students deserve a true fresh start and the chance to get a meaningful degree or certificate at another school.