News
35,000 Former ITT Tech Students Could See $330 Million in Private Loans Erased with New Settlement | Yahoo Finance
A new settlement related to the now-defunct for-profit school ITT Technical Institute would erase $330 million in privately-held student loan debt owed by around 35,000 former ITT students.
Lawsuit Against Student Loan Giant Navient Will Test Limits of Private Debt Discharge | Yahoo Finance
A former student at the now-defunct ITT Technical Institute and his mother are suing student loan giant Navient (NAVI) over the company’s refusal to cancel his private student loans despite the U.S. government erasing thousands of federal student loans related to the notorious for-profit school. The case could set a precedent for defrauded borrowers seeking relief from privately-held loans (as opposed to federally-backed loans).
Scammed Student Sues Navient, Asking for Cancellation of Debt he Took on to Attend For-Profit College | MarketWatch
For roughly a decade, Jorge Villalba has been contending with student debt that he believes — and the government has confirmed — he was illegally misled into borrowing. Villalba, 39, attended ITT Technical Institutes, a major for-profit college chain, from 2006 to 2010. Just six years after he graduated, ITT filed for bankruptcy, amid allegations the school used misleading job placement and graduation rates to convince students to sign up for classes and take on the loans that would pay for them.
Former ITT Student Sues Navient For Student Loan Forgiveness | Forbes
Today, a new lawsuit was filed against Navient, the student loan servicer formerly known as Sallie Mae. The suit was filed by the Project on Predatory Student Lending at Harvard Law School on behalf of Jorge and Alicia Villalba.
Trump Administration’s Handling of Stalled Student Debt Relief Claims Threatens Proposed Settlement | Washington Post
A proposed court settlement between the Trump administration and defrauded borrowers is in jeopardy after the administration revealed its widespread denials of requests for student debt cancellation. Ninety-four percent of the debt relief claims the Education Department has processed since reaching the agreement in April have been rejected, the department said in a court filing last week. The federal agency issued 78,400 decisions, of which 4,400 were approved and the remainder denied.
“Attacking the Concept of Debt” | Harvard Magazine
Only a few years ago, Douglas Jones, who worked night shifts as a security guard at a nursing home in Roxbury, was hesitant to spend even $10 more than his typical budget allowed. Payments on his student loan debt were being withdrawn directly from his bank account. If the balance was short—for instance, if Jones hadn’t managed to get 40 hours at his job that week—the bank charged an overdraft fee. The debt had ruined his credit score and he hadn’t had a credit card in years. “They were even taking money I didn’t have,” Jones says. “It was stressing me the hell out.” Along with millions of other Americans, Jones had fallen prey to the for-profit college industry, which is in essence a two-pronged system—federal loans at one end and for-profit schools designed to access those loans at the other.
Defrauded Student Loan Borrowers Win, but Still Lose | New York Times
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is denying huge batches of relief requests from students whose schools defrauded them. Even those who aren't denied are getting very little -- or sometimes nothing.
Education Dept. Left Social Security Numbers of Thousands of Borrowers Exposed for Months | Washington Post
The Education Department left the Social Security numbers of tens of thousands of people seeking student debt relief unprotected and susceptible to a data breach for at least six months, according to people familiar with the matter. Angela Morabito, a spokeswoman for the Education Department, acknowledged the error but called it “nonevent.” The data was "was on the department’s secure, internal server, and there is no indication anyone outside the department could have had access to it,” she said. "There is also no indication anyone inside the department handled this file improperly.”
Judge Orders Betsy DeVos to Cancel 7,200 Scammed Borrowers’ Student Loans | MarketWatch
During most of the Trump administration’s tenure, the U.S. Department of Education, led by Betsy DeVos, has worked to limit student debt cancellation for borrowers who say they were scammed by their schools. The agency scored a win in that effort Friday, when Democrats failed to muster enough votes to override President Trump’s veto of a bill that would have overturned the Department’s approach to student debt cancellation under what’s known as the “borrower defense” rule.
Borrower-Defense Veto Override Fails | Inside Higher Ed
Opponents of U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos's rule making it more difficult for those who have been defrauded by their colleges to have their student loans forgiven are looking to the courts to block the measure after suffering a defeat in Congress Friday. In a victory for DeVos, the Democratic House failed to override President Donald Trump’s veto of a bill that would have undone DeVos’s controversial borrower-defense rule.