Biden forgives more than $6B in student debt for 317K defrauded borrowers

The Biden administration announced Wednesday it would be forgiving $6 billion in student debt for borrowers who attended the Art Institutes.

The 317,000 borrowers will receive the relief after it was discovered the school “falsified data, knowingly misled students, and cheated borrowers into taking on mountains of debt without leading to promising career prospects at the end of their studies.” 

The relief comes through the Borrower Defense program, which allows those defrauded by their schools to receive loan cancellation. 

Among the infractions against the Art Institutes include falsely advertising that 80 percent of graduates found employment in their field within six months of graduation. The advertisements also included inflated salary data from graduates of the school.

“For more than a decade, hundreds of thousands of hopeful students borrowed billions to attend The Art Institutes and got little but lies in return. That ends today — thanks to the Biden-Harris Administration’s work with the attorneys general offices of Iowa, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania,” Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said. “We must continue to protect borrowers from predatory institutions — and work toward a higher education system that is affordable to students and taxpayers.”

In the announcement, Biden directly went after Trump, saying, “While my predecessor looked the other way when colleges defrauded students and borrowers, I promised to take this on directly to provide borrowers with the relief they need and deserve.”

The latest round of forgiveness brings the total amount of relief given to student loan borrowers under the Biden administration to $160 billion for 4.6 million individuals.