Thousands of former ITT Technical Institute students will have their loans forgiven by the Department of Education. Amounting to $500 million, the debt forgiveness will impact 18,000 students of the troubled—and now-defunct—for-profit college.
This federal student loan forgiveness follows the $330 million granted students who took out private student loans last September, when forty-eight state attorneys general and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau secured $330 million for claims the company steered students into predatory loans.
The latest forgiveness marks the first time DOE has approved relief on the basis that an institution misled students about their professional prospects, CNBC reports.
Pressure has been on the Biden administration from Democratic lawmakers to forgive at least $50,000 for every federal student loan borrower, as the President scrapped his campaign proposal to forgive $10,000 from his annual budget proposal and stimulus plans.
Black men and women have more student loan debt than any other group, according to a report by the American Association of University Women, and advocates have called student loan debt cancellation a racial justice issue that could help close the racial wealth gap.