Is Credit Score an Indicator of Responsibility?

For-profit universities have been at the forefront of education news this year. Now, as we close 2010, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is suing Kaplan Higher Education Corporation, one of the nation's largest for-profit higher education entities. The EEOC alleges that Kaplan engaged in practices of unlawful discrimination by refusing to hire a class of black job applicants.

The EEOC is relating these racial charges to Kaplan's practice of rejecting job applicants based on their credit history. A policy the organization has had since at least 2008. The EEOC says that denying applicants based on credit history has an unlawful discriminatory impact on race because credit history is neither job-related nor justified by business necessity. As a result of these practices, Kaplan has violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, according to the EEOC lawsuit.

The EEOC attempted to reach a voluntary settlement with Kaplan before filing the suit. The EEOC seeks injunctive relief, as well as lost wages and benefits and offers of employment for people who were not hired because of Kaplan's discriminatory practices.

"Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was intended to eliminate practices that serve as arbitrary barriers to employment because of a job applicant's race," said Regional Attorney Debra Lawrence of the EEOC's Philadelphia District Office. "Employers need to be mindful that any hiring practice be job-related and not screen out groups of people, even if it does so unintentionally."

Photo Credit: Colin Truth