Tens of thousands of students across the country have been defrauded by for-profit colleges. On Wednesday, NPR reported on internal documents that show how career staffers at the Department of Education believed that students in these situations should have their debts forgiven, but that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos overruled them.

Students who are cheated by their colleges will receive full loan forgiveness only if they end up earning far less than their peers, while others will receive relief between 25% and 75% of their debt under new rules unveiled Tuesday by the U.S. Education Department. The policy is a departure from the Obama administration, which provided full loan forgiveness in cases of fraud, and it marks the second time the Trump administration has attempted to provide only partial loan relief.

Documents obtained by NPR shed new light on a bitter fight between defrauded student borrowers and U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. These borrowers — more than 200,000 of them — say some for-profit colleges lied to them about their job prospects and the transferability of credits. They argue they were defrauded and that the Education Department should erase their federal student loan debt under a rule called "borrower defense."

Thousands of students who took out federal loans to attend schools that lured them with fraudulent claims will still have to repay a portion of their debts, the Education Department said Tuesday — a new attempt to water down a loan-forgiveness program that the department’s leader has long deplored.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is doubling down on a controversial policy of granting partial debt relief to students defrauded by their colleges, despite ongoing legal challenges and a congressional inquiry. On Tuesday, the Education Department released an updated methodology for processing loan forgiveness claims made under a statute known as borrower defense to repayment.

Students who are cheated by their colleges will receive full loan forgiveness only if they end up earning far less than their peers, while others will receive relief between 25% and 75% of their debt under new rules unveiled Tuesday by the U.S. Education Department.

U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos took another crack at revamping a student loan forgiveness program Tuesday, affecting thousands of students who took out federal loans to attend for-profit colleges that solicited attendance with fraudulent claims.