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and its all recourse . . . of course
Traci Joyce, who graduated from California Culinary Academy $130,000 in debt, handles pizza dough at Zachary's Chicago Pizza in San Ramon - where she worked before cooking school.
Joyce, who worked in restaurants for 15 years and dreamed of being a chef, said she was sold by the CCA's program the moment she walked into the admissions office.
She said the admissions people made her feel like she had a good chance of becoming an executive chef because of the school's status in the industry.
But the only jobs she landed were positions at a catering company and a butcher shop. "I was making sandwiches," she said.
Finally she got her job back at Zachary's Chicago Pizza, but even that was a demotion. Before culinary school she was a manager, now she works in the kitchen.
"If I could go back and change this, I never would have done it," she said. "The most embarrassing part is what a farce I feel like. My friends and family introduce me as a chef. I want to say, 'Yeah, right. I make pizzas.' "
For the next 20 years, Matt Foist will be paying off his $46,000 in cooking-school loans, and all he says he has to show for it is a useless chef's diploma, a nice set of knives - but no job.
He said he'd be lucky to make $15 an hour in the culinary world, even though the school told him he would land jobs with annual salaries of $45,000. So he's gone back to his software career.
The 46-year-old, who believes he was scammed by San Francisco's California Culinary Academy, is one of the representatives of a class-action lawsuit in which a $40 million settlement offer from the cooking school is pending.
As part of the settlement, the 8,500 students who attended the academy from 2003 through 2008 were notified last month that they could be eligible for rebates of up to $20,000 each. Tuition prices are typically $46,000 for a 12-month program and an additional three months of on-the-job training.
A hearing to approve the settlement is scheduled for Aug. 22.
In addition, Career Education Corp., the parent company of CCA (it also owns 15 other vocational colleges, including the Texas Culinary Academy and Le Cordon Bleu), has agreed to eat $1.8 million in student debt.
But for many, it's not enough. They say the dream they were sold to be high-paid chefs was bogus. And now they're faced with enormous student loans to pay off - some in excess of $100,000, after deferrals and interest accruals.
"By the end I'd realized I had the wool pulled over my eyes," Foist said. "I feel like it was a huge waste of time and a huge waste of money. And I'm one of the lucky ones who had a job to go back to."
According to the suit, students and lawyers, the school misrepresented its 98 percent job placement rate, exaggerated its prestige in the industry and suggested that it had a selective qualifying process.
"This rate is a lie," the suit states in regards to the school's placement rate. "The placement statistics included non-professional entry level jobs like prep cooks, $8-$12 an hour line cooks and Starbucks baristas. That culinary degree was not a pre-requisite or even relevant for many of the included jobs."
Ray Gallo, the lead plaintiff's attorney on the case, said, "In my opinion, very few of the class members would have bought what CCA was selling if they had the facts that I have today."
CCA is not the first for-profit school to come under scrutiny. There are 2,000 private vocational schools, ranging from psychology and cosmetology to business administration and medical training, receiving $24 billion in federal money each year, according to government oversight investigations conducted last year.
At four of the colleges, administrators encouraged the undercover applicant to falsify his or her financial aid forms to qualify for federal aid. In one case the admissions representative told an applicant to fraudulently omit $250,000 in savings, according to the report.
Often, the schools target the most vulnerable segment of the population, said Robert Mills, another attorney representing the CCA plaintiffs. In the case of the Culinary Academy, many of the students were children of immigrants, who had family members co-sign for their loans thinking that they'd get lucrative jobs after graduation, he said.
Traci Joyce, who graduated from CCA in 2003, said she'll carry her $130,000 debt to her grave.
"This is the elephant I sleep next to every night," the 40-year-old said. "I can't get rid of it even if I declare bankruptcy. Student loans are exempt. So it's ruined my credit, kept me from buying a house and putting money aside for my retirement."
CEC denies the allegations and agreed to settle the suit only because it was "distracting to our mission and extraordinarily expensive to litigate," Mark Spencer, a spokesman for the company, said in a statement.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...MN4G1J8PRR.DTL
Traci Joyce, who graduated from California Culinary Academy $130,000 in debt, handles pizza dough at Zachary's Chicago Pizza in San Ramon - where she worked before cooking school.
Joyce, who worked in restaurants for 15 years and dreamed of being a chef, said she was sold by the CCA's program the moment she walked into the admissions office.
She said the admissions people made her feel like she had a good chance of becoming an executive chef because of the school's status in the industry.
But the only jobs she landed were positions at a catering company and a butcher shop. "I was making sandwiches," she said.
Finally she got her job back at Zachary's Chicago Pizza, but even that was a demotion. Before culinary school she was a manager, now she works in the kitchen.
"If I could go back and change this, I never would have done it," she said. "The most embarrassing part is what a farce I feel like. My friends and family introduce me as a chef. I want to say, 'Yeah, right. I make pizzas.' "
For the next 20 years, Matt Foist will be paying off his $46,000 in cooking-school loans, and all he says he has to show for it is a useless chef's diploma, a nice set of knives - but no job.
He said he'd be lucky to make $15 an hour in the culinary world, even though the school told him he would land jobs with annual salaries of $45,000. So he's gone back to his software career.
The 46-year-old, who believes he was scammed by San Francisco's California Culinary Academy, is one of the representatives of a class-action lawsuit in which a $40 million settlement offer from the cooking school is pending.
As part of the settlement, the 8,500 students who attended the academy from 2003 through 2008 were notified last month that they could be eligible for rebates of up to $20,000 each. Tuition prices are typically $46,000 for a 12-month program and an additional three months of on-the-job training.
A hearing to approve the settlement is scheduled for Aug. 22.
In addition, Career Education Corp., the parent company of CCA (it also owns 15 other vocational colleges, including the Texas Culinary Academy and Le Cordon Bleu), has agreed to eat $1.8 million in student debt.
But for many, it's not enough. They say the dream they were sold to be high-paid chefs was bogus. And now they're faced with enormous student loans to pay off - some in excess of $100,000, after deferrals and interest accruals.
"By the end I'd realized I had the wool pulled over my eyes," Foist said. "I feel like it was a huge waste of time and a huge waste of money. And I'm one of the lucky ones who had a job to go back to."
According to the suit, students and lawyers, the school misrepresented its 98 percent job placement rate, exaggerated its prestige in the industry and suggested that it had a selective qualifying process.
"This rate is a lie," the suit states in regards to the school's placement rate. "The placement statistics included non-professional entry level jobs like prep cooks, $8-$12 an hour line cooks and Starbucks baristas. That culinary degree was not a pre-requisite or even relevant for many of the included jobs."
Ray Gallo, the lead plaintiff's attorney on the case, said, "In my opinion, very few of the class members would have bought what CCA was selling if they had the facts that I have today."
CCA is not the first for-profit school to come under scrutiny. There are 2,000 private vocational schools, ranging from psychology and cosmetology to business administration and medical training, receiving $24 billion in federal money each year, according to government oversight investigations conducted last year.
At four of the colleges, administrators encouraged the undercover applicant to falsify his or her financial aid forms to qualify for federal aid. In one case the admissions representative told an applicant to fraudulently omit $250,000 in savings, according to the report.
Often, the schools target the most vulnerable segment of the population, said Robert Mills, another attorney representing the CCA plaintiffs. In the case of the Culinary Academy, many of the students were children of immigrants, who had family members co-sign for their loans thinking that they'd get lucrative jobs after graduation, he said.
Traci Joyce, who graduated from CCA in 2003, said she'll carry her $130,000 debt to her grave.
"This is the elephant I sleep next to every night," the 40-year-old said. "I can't get rid of it even if I declare bankruptcy. Student loans are exempt. So it's ruined my credit, kept me from buying a house and putting money aside for my retirement."
CEC denies the allegations and agreed to settle the suit only because it was "distracting to our mission and extraordinarily expensive to litigate," Mark Spencer, a spokesman for the company, said in a statement.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...MN4G1J8PRR.DTL
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Around here you're lucky if ANYONE on the job has ever held a license. "What's Ohm's law?"
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