Statement on Senate Plan To Cancel Student Loan Payments During Coronavirus Emergency And Provide Minimum $10K Payoff For All Federal Student Loan Borrowers | Press Release

The Project on Predatory Student Lending praises Senate Democrats’ new plan to cancel student loan payments for the duration of the COVID-19 Emergency and their proposal to provide a minimum $10,000 payoff for all federal student loan borrowers. The Project urges the Senate and the U.S. Department of Education to also take swift action to cancel fraudulent debts from student borrowers who attended predatory for-profit schools who will be most severely impacted by this economic crisis. Statement from Toby Merrill, Director of the Project on Predatory Student Lending“This swift action by the Senate has the opportunity to save millions of borrowers from financial ruin by providing relief during this uncertain time. This need is even more urgent for borrowers who have been cheated by for-profit colleges. At a time when Congress is considering those most vulnerable during an economic crisis, we urge government leaders to remember that students targeted by for-profit schools are the same people who will suffer the most during and after this economic crisis. Many are hourly workers, without paid sick time, or are already living paycheck to paycheck trying to make ends meet. They were drowning in bogus debt before this pandemic and economic freefall. In this moment of heightened economic uncertainty, it is the Department’s obligation to alleviate the burden of fraudulent student loan debt, and we are calling on leaders to act on this immediately.”Please see our statement issued March 18, calling on Congress and the Department of Education to take action to relieve the debts of for-profit college students at this time, particularly those who attended Corinthian Colleges.----Established in 2012, the Project on Predatory Student Lending is the first legal services practice in the country focused solely on representing former students of for-profit colleges. Its mission is to litigate to make it legally and financially impossible for the predatory for-profit college industry to cheat students, and to relieve borrowers from fraudulent student loan debt.The Project has brought a wide variety of cases on behalf of former students of for-profit colleges. It has sued the federal Department of Education for its failures to meet its legal obligation to police this industry and stop the perpetration and collection of fraudulent student loan debt. It has also brought its clients’ experiences to bear on federal and state policymaking.

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