The U.S. Department of Education on Tuesday approved a group discharge of $3.9 billion in federal student loan debt for over 200,000 borrowers who claimed to be defrauded by a for-profit college chain.
Any student who had taken a federal loan to attend the ITT Technical Institutes will automatically have their debt wiped out, regardless of whether they are applying for a borrower defense discharge, the department said. Typically, borrowers need to file a borrower defense claim against the college they believe has misled them in order to get some or all of the loan debt discharged.
Tuesday’s action will result in 208,000 former ITT students receiving $3.9 billion in full loan discharges, according to the department. This will also bring the total amount of loan discharges approved by the Biden administration to nearly $32 billion….