Statement on US Education Department Cancelling $150 Million in Student Loans

In response to the US Department of Education, after a court order, will cancel $150 million in federal loans of students who were affected by the closure of for-profit colleges:

This news is a small but important step towards justice for 15,000 student borrowers who were defrauded by predatory for-profit colleges taking advantage of our broken student loan system. It’s outrageous that it took a court order to force the Trump Administration and Secretary DeVos to do the right thing and cancel these loans. It’s a credit to the effort of Attorney General Maura Healey and the other state attorneys general and advocacy groups who forced the administration to act.

However, this decision still leaves more than 100,000 students who were defrauded by closed for-profit colleges and continue to struggle under a massive amount of debt. It’s clear that Secretary DeVos won’t cancel their loans unless she is forced to, and we stand with Attorney General Healey and other state leaders as they continue to hold the Trump administration accountable.

The federal student loan system creates perverse incentives that enable bad actors to prey on students. Without adequate protections for students, these predatory corporations will continue to base their business models on the availability of these loans, with little commitment to providing quality education.