Impact
Stopping predatory for-profit colleges from harming students and communities.
Since launching a first of its kind legal fight in 2016 against the predatory for-profit college industry and the harm they cause to students and communities, PPSL has grown to represent more than one million borrowers and its litigation has directly resulted in the cancellation of over $10 billion in fraudulent student debts.
PPSL’s landmark litigation – and our clients’ willingness to stand up for themselves and others in court – has increased awareness of this insidious industry and changed the landscape of how predatory schools operate and their ability to cheat students.
Sweet v. Cardona (formerly v. DeVos)
PPSL represents more than 260,000 defrauded students from dozens of schools whose borrower defense claims were ignored by the Department of Education for years and then, in many cases, summarily denied with no explanation. On June 22, 2022, student borrowers filed a joint motion for approval of a settlement with the Department of Education in which approximately 200,000 borrowers would immediately get loan cancellation, receiving a minimum of $6 billion total debt cancellation – resulting in the potential of life changing relief for hundreds of thousands of students.
Villalba v. ITT
In ITT’s bankruptcy proceedings, the PPSL represents a class of 750,000 former ITT students as creditors of the company. PPSL reached a settlement with the bankruptcy estate that canceled $500 million in ITT debt, returned $3 million to former ITT students, and gave students a $1.5 billion allowed claim against the estate. Since then, PPSL published an in-depth report, Dreams Destroyed, detailing the massive fraud perpetrated by ITT. All of this led to the Department to announce full discharge of all remaining federal student loans for borrowers who attended ITT from January 1, 2005, through its closure in September 2016. All told, this means 208,000 borrowers will receive $3.9 billion in full loan discharges.
Calvillo Manriquez v. Cardona (formerly v. DeVos)
PPSL obtained an injunction against former Secretary DeVos’s illegal “partial relief” formula for borrower defense claims, then successfully petitioned to hold the then Secretary in contempt of court for the department’s illegal collection of thousands of Corinthian students’ debts while the injunction was in place. In June 2022, the Department of Education announced the cancellation of all Corinthian College debts. This was a major win for student borrowers and a long overdue victory.
Vara v. Cardona (formerly v. DeVos)
A federal judge ordered then-Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to cancel the loans of 7,200 former Corinthian Colleges students in Massachusetts. This was the first time a court has ever ordered a borrower defense discharge of federal student loans and it established a legal pathway for state attorneys general to pursue student loan discharge from the Department of Education on behalf of their state’s defrauded residents.
"I believe the work that is being done by the Project on Predatory Student Lending has helped bring light to a very dark corner of our education system. On a more personal level, the Project has given me the courage to speak about this issue. There can be a lot of fear and shame associated with being victims of education fraud. But the Project’s work has helped show me, and millions of other students who were cheated, that there is nothing to be ashamed of and that if we speak up and stand together we can make a difference.”
— Theresa Sweet,
the lead plaintiff in the case Sweet v. Cardona.
“Having this [ITT] debt cancelled has improved my life greatly. My credit score has improved tremendously and I can finally apply to get other types of credit and better rates on my current debt. I feel like a huge weight has been lifted in my life, my mood is better, and I'm not so stressed out like I was before. I no longer have to live with the worry that I will never be able to pay this debt. I can move on with my life and plan my future.”
— Jorge Villalba, the name plaintiff in the case Villalba et al. v. ITT and Villalba v. Navient.
“This is just another example of us students taking action to stand up for ourselves and our rights, whether by speaking out in court or in hearings to share our experiences of being lied to and defrauded out of our education. Our experiences have shown us that we cannot sit back and expect that others will always do right by us, but we’ve also seen the power of when we stand up and join our voices together.”
