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U.S. NEWS Tuesday 27 June 2017

American Living:

Promised college loan forgiveness, borrowers wait and wait

By COLLIN BINKLEY for military veterans sent a
Associated Press letter to members of Con-
BOSTON (AP) — Danielle gress this month saying
Ramos’ student-debt night- many veterans are waiting
mare was supposed to be for loan discharges, adding
over. that “any delay is an af-
Like thousands of others front to defrauded service
who studied at failed for- members.”
profit colleges, she was “This is the Trump admin-
promised by the U.S. Edu- istration stepping on a
cation Department under bunch of people who have
President Barack Obama already been stepped on
that her federal loans would many times before,” War-
be forgiven by now. But as ren said in an interview.
the weeks tick by with no “Students who were cheat-
reprieve, the 30-year-old ed by predatory for-profit
college student fears the schools should not have
financial burden will force to wait another day to get
and her 4-year-old son to their loans canceled.”
move back with her par- Sarah Dieffenbacher is
ents. waiting on an application
“I’m a single mom, so that’s she filed in March 2015 af-
really scary,” said Ramos, of Danielle Ramos, 30, poses at MassBay Community College in Wellesley, Mass., where she ter taking out $50,000 in
Framingham, near Boston. pursued her education after being defrauded by a for-profit college. Thousands of students who federal loans to attend a
“It’s just a lot of uncertainty. were defrauded by for-profit colleges were told by the Obama administration that their student Corinthian Colleges cam-
I’m probably going to have loans would be forgiven, but the Trump administration has yet to keep that promise. pus in Ontario, California.
(AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
to rely on family to help me, She has since defaulted on
and it doesn’t feel fair.” than 64,000 others had 2,000 are currently being Obama administration ap- her loans, and a collector is
Borrower advocates say filed new applications. For processed by the depart- proved more than 12,000 trying to garnish her wages.
the pipeline to loan for- months, advocates say, ment.The Obama admin- loans for discharge,” said On June 9, a federal judge
giveness appears to have it appeared few or none istration cracked down Pauline Abernathy, execu- reviewing her case told the
slowed significantly since of those cases were be- aggressively on for-profit tive vice president of the Education Department to
President Donald Trump ing processed. Lawmakers colleges that enticed stu- Institute For College Access make a decision within 90
took office, stirring concern from both political parties dents to take on hefty loans and Success, a nonprofit days.
that some students may be requested an update from with promises they couldn’t advocacy group based in On June 14, DeVos drew a
left in the lurch. Some also the Education Department keep. It pressured chains Oakland, California. “In its new round of criticism from
see it as a sign that the de- in May but say they re- including Corinthian Col- first five months, the Trump borrower advocates when
partment is veering from ceived no response. leges and ITT Technical In- administration has ap- she announced plans to re-
its predecessor’s years of On Monday, the Education stitute to close , and it ap- proved zero, while tens of write Obama-era rules that
work to rein in fraudulent Department released data proved at least $655 million thousands of applications were meant to streamline
for-profit colleges. showing that 7,085 of the in loan cancellations from languish and borrowers are the complex path toward
Education Department of- 16,453 previously approved those chains. left waiting for relief.” loan forgiveness. She de-
ficials dispute those claims, claims have now been dis- Under Trump, the depart- In May, a group of Demo- scribed the rules, which
saying they’re working charged, amounting to $92 ment’s new data suggest, cratic lawmakers urged were set to take effect in
quickly to clear a backlog million in loans. no new loan discharges Education Secretary Betsy July, as “a muddled pro-
that was inherited from the According to the data, have been approved from DeVos to speed up the cess that’s unfair to stu-
previous administration. which were provided first to the pool of 64,301 pend- process. Attorneys general dents and schools.”
When Obama left office, The Associated Press, an- ing applications. A depart- from 17 states and Wash- An Education Department
16,453 borrowers were other 7,300 cases are in the ment spokeswoman did ington, D.C., later told De- spokeswoman said the
waiting for loan cancel- final stages of the process not respond to a request Vos the delay was harming 64,301 pending cases will
lations that had already and will be discharged for comment on Monday. borrowers. And a coalition be reviewed under current
been approved, and more shortly, while the remaining “In its last three months, the of 31 advocacy groups rules.q