Biden Administration Approves Billions in Loan Discharges for ITT Students – By Lauren Camera (US News) / Aug 16, 2022
The decision follows findings that the school misled hundreds of thousands of students about their ability to get a job or transfer credits and about the accreditation of its associate degree in nursing.
The Education Department announced Tuesday that it will discharge $3.9 billion in federal student loans for 208,000 borrowers who attended ITT Technical Institute from 2005 through 2016.
The announcement marks the second biggest discharge in the department’s history and is the latest round of targeted federal student loan forgiveness by the White House, which now totals close to $32 billion.
“In recent years too many for-profit colleges and career schools have been caught defrauding and deceiving their students,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona told reporters Tuesday morning. “Their entire business model relies on driving students deep into debt and then they laugh their way to the bank.”
The decision follows findings based on internal records, testimony from former ITT managers and recruiters and first-hand accounts from borrowers that revealed the school misled hundreds of thousands of students about their ability to get a job or transfer credits and lied about the accreditation of its associate degree in nursing. The Biden administration already approved $1.9 billion in loan forgiveness for 130,000 borrowers who attended ITT in response to the same pervasive misrepresentations.
