The News Tribune (Lite) - Small measures of justice for BCTI students

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Section: Opinion

Small measures of justice for BCTI students

THE NEWS TRIBUNE
Many former students of Business Computer Training Institute still don’t have the diplomas or higher-paying jobs promised them, but they could be a little closer to some semblance of justice.

An insurance company for the defunct Gig Harbor-based computer school has agreed to pay $9 million to settle claims that the school preyed on low-income students, charging them thousands for sometimes shoddy training.

As The News Tribune’s David Wickert reported last year, BCTI left hundreds of vocational students in Washington and Oregon in the cold when it closed its seven campuses in 2005 amid allegations of fraud.

Worse yet, many BCTI graduates have found that their diplomas are of no help in finding the good-paying jobs they were assured would be waiting for them — jobs those students needed to repay the thousands of dollars in student-loan debt they incurred at BCTI.

The settlement, if approved by a judge, would be a down payment — however meager — on the recovery of students’ losses. The picture would improve considerably if an additional $55 million judgment that the ex-students’ attorney says is in the offing materializes.

The money could provide some relief to students struggling to repay student loans for an education that has done little, if anything, to improve their job prospects.

But even $55 million would not go far; it’s enough to cover just one-tenth of the estimated economic damages for the 28,000 students who attended BCTI.

Doing right by the former students also requires ensuring that government does a better job of policing schools like BCTI. State and federal regulators had long known that BCTI was a troubled operation, yet little was done to require improvements or protect students.

Legislation signed by Gov. Chris Gregoire last week will help. The new law establishes minimum standards for commercial vocational schools and their instructors. It also will allow the state to place schools on probation if they don’t meet the requirements.

Neither tougher oversight nor a legal payout can fully compensate students who wasted time and money pursuing a false promise of a more secure future. But they can help send the message to other schools that such practices won’t be tolerated.