Nearly 7,200 former Corinthian Colleges students in Massachusetts are suing the Department of Education and its Secretary Betsy DeVos for failing to cancel their student loan debts.
Filed in a federal court in Boston by the Project on Predatory Student Lending at Harvard’s Legal Services Center, the suit alleges the Education Department of ignoring Attorney General Maura Healey’s borrower defense application that sought cancellation of the students’ fraudulent loans.
Borrower Defense Regulations are aimed at providing relief to debt-ridden students defrauded by higher education programs.
Corinthian Colleges operated dozens of campuses nation-wide, but after legal trysts with states and federal government, the for-profit higher education company announced the closure in 2015.
The lawsuit alleges the department of collecting repayments from borrowers despite the directions from Massachusetts AG to cancel the debts.
“The evidence of abuse is indisputable. The only possible action to take is complete loan cancellation for all former Corinthian students of Massachusetts,” said Project on Predatory Student Lending Director Toby Merrill.
“We will work with Attorney General Healey to force Betsy DeVos to follow the law and cancel the debts of 7,200 defrauded Corinthian students who were cheated and continue to suffer under the weight of these fraudulent debts.”
The Department introduced a new set of Institutional Accountability regulations in the last week of August, which has become a matter of concern for lawmakers, higher educations leaders and organizations accusing the Education Department of Rescinding stronger protections for borrowers guaranteed under the previous rules.
In June, nearly 160,000 former for-profit college students sued DeVos in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California alleging the department of “intentionally” ignoring students’ claims, not taking action to resolve them, and forcibly collecting loans that may not be valid.
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