For-profit college students getting financial help

BY JASON GONZALES CHALKBEAT COLORADO

About 7,400 students who attended the for-pro t CollegeAmerica in Colorado from 2006 to 2020 will automatically get $130 million in student debt forgiven after the U.S. Department of Education found the college made widespread misrepresentations.

CollegeAmerica students will be noti ed in August that their federal student loan balance has been wiped clean. ey also will be reimbursed for the amount they paid on those loans.

e education department used evidence provided by Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser in its forgiveness decision, nding parent-company Center for Excellence in Higher Education gave false information about the salaries and employment rates of its graduates, the programs it o ered, and the terms of a private loan product it o ered.

“CollegeAmerica, they took advantage of people and preyed on vulnerable individuals,” Weiser said during a July news conference with the federal education department.

“ ey had tens of thousands of TV commercials, radio, mailers, all of which promoted starting salaries or median starting salary that they claimed their degrees would give people access to. at was fundamentally untrue.” e Colorado attorney general’s o ce started investigating the forpro t in 2012, with a nal judgment in favor of the state in 2020.

Federal Student Aid Chief Operating O cer Richard Cordray credited Weiser’s o ce for its work exposing issues with College America.

Cordray said issues included CollegeAmerica in ating job placement rates from 40% to 70%. e college also advertised higher salaries for its graduates, sometimes by twice as much.

“Nothing can replace the time these students spent, the years that have passed, and their trust that is broken,” Corduroy said. “What we can do, we will do, to try to make things right.” e department’s actions discharge federal loans for the 7,400 students. Private loans, however, are not eligible for forgiveness. e Biden-Harris Administration has forgiven $14.7 billion in relief for 1.1 million borrowers nationally whose colleges took advantage of them or closed, according to a news release.

Students at now-closed Corinthian Colleges, ITT Technical Institute, and Westwood College also have received loan relief.

Chalkbeat is a nonpro t news site covering educational change in public schools.

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