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
For-Profit Schools Target The Black Community. Here’s How You Can Avoid The Scam | BET
This article takes a deeper dive into for-profit schools and the students who have been scammed into pursuing quick-and-easy higher education. Let’s all take a minute to look at why this problem hits the Black community the hardest.
Defrauded by Colleges, Students Wait in Vain for Federal Help | Austin Statesman
In 2013, Morgan Marler decided she wanted a career in computers. At the time, the now-29-year-old was living in Arlington and looking for a job that would pay well and give her a purpose. She enrolled in ITT Technical Institute, one of the nation’s largest for-profit schools. It had been in business for 50 years and had eight campuses in Texas, a fact that reassured Marler. Counselors told her she could expect to make $60,000 with a degree in network system administration.
Raising the Bar for Loan Forgiveness | Inside Higher Ed
In her first significant act as Education Secretary more than two years ago, Betsy DeVos said she planned to overhaul an Obama administration student loan rule designed to protect borrowers defrauded by their college. Despite her efforts, the Obama borrower-defense regulations took effect last year. But on Friday DeVos capped off a two-year effort by issuing her own rule, which scales back loan forgiveness opportunities for student borrowers.
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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