About the Predatory For-Profit College Industry
For decades, the predatory for-profit college industry has exploited the promise of higher education. The industry specifically targets low-income students, people of color, immigrants, veterans, and others trying to build a better life for themselves, their families and their communities. Many are the first in their family to attend college. This industry draws nearly all its revenue from taxpayer dollars and relies on deceptive and relentless sales tactics to recruit students, leaving them worse off than they started. The Project’s landmark cases on behalf of student borrowers work to end these predatory practices and hold those who enable them accountable.
Featured Cases
Sweet v. DeVos
Challenges the Department of Education’s refusal to process borrower defense claims.
Villalba et al. v. ITT
Class action by former ITT Tech students in ITT’s bankruptcy proceedings. Students are the true creditors of ITT and debts from ITT are invalid.
Calvillo Manriquez v. DeVos
Class action challenging the federal government’s failure to discharge tens of thousands of student loans from Corinthian College discharge applicants whom the government already deemed entitled to discharges.
“Everything that the school promised, turned out to be false... Sanford-Brown Institute has left me and many other students with mountains of debt and no career path to dig ourselves out. Making this worse is that our own government has failed to step in to protect and help students.”
“[The Department of Education] should be protecting the students, because students were led to believe they were protected. And they are not, they are protecting...for-profit schools."
“I hope these rulings remind the Department of its obligation to its citizens who are the future of this country, and that it will start to act in the interest of students instead of for-profit institutions.”
-Meaghan, former student at New England Institute of Art
News
Elizabeth Warren Took On Obama Over Student Debt Forgiveness. How She Won Is Central To Her 2020 Campaign | BuzzFeed News
In 2015, when she found herself on Air Force One with then-president Barack Obama, Sen. Elizabeth Warren seized the chance to pressure the most powerful man in the world about an obscure part of federal tax law.
DeVos Sued by Students Seeking College Loan Relief | Detroit Free Press
Former students of predatory, for-profit colleges are suing Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, claiming the U.S. Department of Education intentionally refused to process their applications for federal loan relief. According to the Huffington Post, DeVos halted the implementation of the Borrower Defense to Repayment regulation in June 2017, leaving the plaintiffs of the lawsuit, and many other students who were not listed, in crippling debt and without a clear path to financial recovery.
I’m Drowning In $120K Of Student Debt And I’m Suing Betsy DeVos To Make Her Fix That | HuffPost
I am drowning in more than $120,000 of student debt after being defrauded by a for-profit college, and I refuse to wait for relief from the Trump administration. That’s why I am going on the offense and suing Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. More than 158,000 other former students are doing the same.
Get Help
If you attended a for-profit college and need legal help with student debt problems, contact us by leaving a message on our hotline, 617-390-2669, or filling out our online intake form.
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