News 8 Investigates
DALLAS - The owners of Westwood College - which has branches in Dallas, Fort Worth and Houston - will pay $7 million to settle a lawsuit with the federal government.
Four years ago, News 8 investigated student complaints against Westwood, which operates seventeen schools nationwide. Its three Texas campuses are known as "career colleges," but in a federal lawsuit, the government charged Westwood was not the college it said it was, and that it did not provide careers for its students.
The lawsuit covers a period from 2002 to 2005, and contains the same complaints Westwood students shared with News 8 in 2005.
Westwood can cost a student tens of thousands of dollars, depending on the curriculum; most students get government grants and loans to go there.
The government charged Westwood with fraud and misrepresentation in participating in those loans.
Westwood told students that 97 percent of its graduates got jobs, but the government said the placement rate was far lower.
"They promised me that job placement wasn't going be an issue," former student Kendra Cooper said. "I could make $40,000 to $50,000 a year - no problem."
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Even though she graduated at the top of her class, Cooper never found a job.
In its lawsuit, the government said many students found their own jobs after graduating, in areas of work they could have received with a high school degree.
The lawsuit said students were told the credits they earned at Westwood could be transferred to junior colleges and universities. But when former student Robert Moers presented his Westwood transcript to a junior college, officials there told him to "just keep this transcript, because we don't recognize this institution [Westwood] as a school."
Westwood's Texas campuses remain open.
The government's case took years to put together. After prosecutors sought a jury trial, Westwood decided to settle, which does not admit guilt.
