Thousands of Defrauded ITT Tech Students Are Getting Their Loans Erased

The Education Department has approved another $500 million in loan-forgiveness requests from former ITT Technical Institute students who say they were swindled by the now-defunct chain of schools, as the Biden administration expands its use of debt-relief programs.

The loans of 18,000 former students are being forgiven under a legal provision known as borrower defense to repayment, which allows students to have their debts erased if they prove they were defrauded by their schools. The group whose loans were addressed Wednesday said the for-profit ITT Tech provided deceptive information about their employment prospects and whether credits earned there would transfer to other schools.

The move marks a step forward in the effort to clear a backlog of claims in the borrower defense program, which provides loan forgiveness to students who were defrauded by their colleges. There are now more than 100,000 pending claims.

In announcing the new action, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona vowed to continue standing up for students who are deceived by their schools.

Regarding the latest batch of borrowers, the Education Department said it found that between 2005 and when ITT closed in 2016, the school made “repeated and significant misrepresentations” to students about their expected jobs and earnings after graduation, and lied from 2007 through much of 2014 about how other schools would view credits earned at ITT.

“Our action today will give thousands of borrowers a fresh start and the relief they deserve,” Cardona said in a statement. “Many of these borrowers have waited a long time for relief, and we need to work swiftly to render decisions for those whose claims are still pending.”

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