Spanning five states and 56 different locations, Marinello Schools of Beauty is closing, leaving students to complete their education at other beauty schools. Marinello is being forced to close its doors after a decision by the federal government to cut federal funding to the schools located in California and Nevada. Marinello schools were placed under “heightened cash monitoring” a few months previous, a term from the Department of Education that lets a school know their finances are being watched for misconduct. This typically occurs when a school operates under a lot of debt, but in this case, it was a little more confusing.
After the Department of Education delayed federal funding in late 2015, Marinello claims they were given no information about what spurred such an action. In statements from the school, they indicate they were willing to make changes, but without communication from the Department of Education, they couldn’t know where to begin.
In February 2016, the Department of Education took another step forward and cut off federal funding for the organization’s California and Nevada schools. Days later, the school folded under the pressure, leaving thousands of students, even those preparing to graduate within weeks, without a school to help them complete their beauty training.
The problems for the students range from finding a new school that will transfer upwards of a thousand hours of coursework to figuring out the financial confusion in the aftermath of the school closing to verifying the legitimacy of transcripts collected from the school. Students are considering filing for their student loans to be discharged by the federal government, while others are cutting their losses and exploring nearby beauty school offerings.