The Biden administration on Wednesday canceled more than $6 billion in student loans for 317,000 people who attended arts institutions, a network of now-defunct for-profit colleges that President Biden said “knowingly misled” students.
After reviewing cases brought by the state attorney general against the schools and their parent company, the Education Management Corporation, the Department of Education found that arts institutions falsified employment statistics in advertisements and misled prospective students with inflated salary expectations.
In one case, an art college campus in Florida appeared to include tennis star Serena Williams' annual earnings in graduate salary projections after she attended classes there.
“This institution falsified data, knowingly misled students and defrauded borrowers without leading them to promising career opportunities at the end of their studies,” President Biden said in a statement.
He is former President Donald J. took a swipe at Trump, accusing him of ignoring the influence of predatory for-profit schools on students.
“While my predecessor looked the other way when colleges defrauded students and borrowers, I promised to take it head-on to provide the borrowers with the relief they needed and deserved,” said Mr. Biden said.
The president's decision to cancel student loans is another step in his push for student loan forgiveness since the Supreme Court rejected a more ambitious plan to wipe out more than $400 billion in debt.
Mr. Biden last month said he would make another attempt at large-scale loan forgiveness for more than 25 million people, despite opposition from Republicans who say it would be unfair to borrowers struggling to pay off their student loans without help.
Meanwhile, the administration has forgiven about $160 billion in debt to 4.6 million borrowers by overhauling and streamlining existing programs that have been plagued by bureaucratic and other problems for years.
The measure covers students who attended Art Institute schools between January 1, 2004 and October 16, 2017. Borrowers will be notified from Wednesday that they have been approved and their loans will be automatically cancelled, the department said.
Forgiving federal student loans for borrowers determined by the administration has emerged as part of the administration's student loan relief strategy. To date, the administration has approved $28.7 billion in loan forgiveness for 1.6 million borrowers who engaged in misleading practices or were shut down.
“In addition to providing critical relief to students, we must hold wrongdoers accountable — otherwise, administrators will continue to exploit students for their own benefit,” said Aaron Ament, president of the National Student Legal Defense Network, which represents former arts faculty. 2018 onwards students of educational institution.
