SO THEY GAVE ME THIS MUCH MONEY
What a hypocrite Marco Rubio is. He criticized Trump University but at the same time, he was aiding an unscrupulous school that in the next year took in 1.2 billion in federal taxpayer money. Rubio took a political contribution of $26,000 from Corinthian Colleges. Corinthian Colleges was closed last April because of it’s predatory practices.
When Corinthian Colleges first was first noted by the US Department of Education, Marco Rubio went to bat for them as the DOE was about to deny the college the use of Pell grants and student loans that all small colleges depend on to survive.
BLoomberg published an article at the time addressing Rubio’s role:
Senator Marco Rubio of Florida asked the U.S. Department of Education to ‘demonstrate leniency’ toward Corinthian Colleges by permitting the wealthy for-profit company to continue accessing millions of dollars in federal financial aid while it was cooperating with a federal investigation… The top-tier Republican presidential candidate had made his plea in a letter—obtained by Bloomberg Politics—dated June 20, 2014 and addressed to Jim Shelton, the deputy secretary of education, and Ted Mitchell, the undersecretary for post-secondary education.
And here is the letter Bloomberg alluded to:
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…While I commend the Department’s desire to protect our nation’s students from fraudulent and malicious activity by any institution of higher education, regardless of tax status, I believe the Department can and should demonstrate leniency as long as Corinthian Colleges, Inc. continues to expeditiously and earnestly cooperate by providing the documents requested.
That was not Marco Rubio’s only contact with a predatory school. In the next example he has the company of Debbie Wasserman Schultz:
A well-known Florida donor who gave thousands to prominent pols from Marco Rubio to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) turned himself in Tuesday afternoon for allegedly making illegal campaign contributions. The Miami Herald reported that Ernesto Perez, who owns the for-profit Dade Medical College, surrendered on Tuesday and plans to plead guilty for illegally bundling campaign contributions. He will likely serve one day in jail and pay a $200,000 fine… Rubio got a particularly large windfall from Perez. In 2013 he contributed $15,000 to the Florida senator’s political ambitions—$10,000 to his leadership PAC and $5,000 to his principal campaign committee.
Seven members of congress urged the DOE not to cut off schools based on gainful employment. One of those members was Marco Rubio.