News
Why People with Student Debt are Refusing to Repay It | CNBC
Sandy Nurse doesn’t see why she needs to be $120,000 in debt “just for trying to improve my understanding of the world.” And so, after a decade of struggling to repay her student loans, she plans to stop trying. She hopes others will join her, too, in a national strike against the country’s outstanding student loan debt, which is marching toward $1.7 trillion.
Education Department Must Stop Funding For-Profit Colleges That Force Students to Arbitrate
Following a Friday court decision upholding U.S. Department of Education rules intended to stop schools from forcing defrauded students into secretive out-of-court arbitrations, lawyers representing for-profit college students are urging the department to follow that rule and cut off funding of for-profit colleges that violate it.
Dear Presidential Candidates: Yes, You Can Cancel All Student Debt on Day One | Blog
With the presidential primaries now in full swing, the issue of the nation’s whopping $1.5 trillion in student loan debt – and whether to cancel it – has become a popular topic, highlighting a growing consensus that the current system of debt-financed higher education is broken.
Toby Merrill and Eileen Connor | Boston Globe
Long before the Democratic candidates for president were warning about our national student debt crisis, Toby Merrill and Eileen Connor were doing something about it. They worked separately at first, and then together at Harvard Law School’s Project on Predatory Student Lending.
My Student Loan Truth: Jared’s South University Story | Blog
When the Dream Center chain collapsed, thousands of students were left stranded and scammed of education. Jared Russell was one of them.
Muddied Picture for Defrauded Borrowers | Inside Higher Ed
Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives were able to pass a measure last week expressing opposition to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s borrower-defense rule. But because of politics and both ongoing and upcoming legal battles, the vote did little to clear up what will happen to students who are asking for their loans to be discharged because they were defrauded by colleges.
House votes to make it easier for scammed borrowers to cancel student loans | MarketWatch
Federal lawmakers voted Thursday to block Education Department rules that would make it harder for scammed students to wipe away loans from shuttered schools. The Democrat-controlled U.S. House of Representatives passed a measure that would halt rules slated for implementation in July and reinstate Obama administration-era regulations on how to deal with the debt loads of students with useless degrees.
Student Advocates Announce Closed School Discharges for Over 30,000 Student Borrowers | Press Release
Student Defense and the Project on Predatory Student Lending issued statements today responding to the U.S. Department of Education’s confirmation that it had discharged loans for over 30,000 student borrowers under the automatic closed school discharge provision of the 2016 borrower defense rule. The discharges include roughly $95.1 million in relief for approximately 7,700 former students of the predatory for-profit college, ITT Tech.
Former Students of Defunct ITT Tech Receive $95.1 Million Loan Relief | Wall Street Journal
WASHINGTON—The Education Department is providing loan relief to some 7,800 former students of the ITT Technical Institute, with debts totaling $95.1 million being forgiven by the government years after the giant for-profit school chain closed. The department said that it has identified 7,878 former students of ITT Tech as eligible for a program in which loans are discharged automatically within three years of a school closure. Of those borrowers who attended the school, 7,697 had received loan forgiveness as of Jan. 3.
Defrauded college students will no longer be taxed on their canceled loans | Washington Post
Student loan borrowers whose education debt has been canceled because their college closed or engaged in fraud will no longer face a tax bill, relief that arrives as applications for forgiveness continue to grow. On Wednesday, the Internal Revenue Service issued guidance shielding borrowers from having their discharged federal and private loans treated as taxable income. The measure is effective for education loans canceled on or after Jan. 1, 2016. Anyone affected by the new policy may claim a credit or refund for an overpayment of taxes.