Student loan borrowers and advocates gather for the People’s Rally to Cancel Student Debt during a Supreme Court hearing on student debt relief on February 28, 2023 in Washington, DC.
Countess Cemal/Getty Images People’s Rally
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Student loan borrowers and advocates gather for the People’s Rally to Cancel Student Debt during a Supreme Court hearing on student debt relief on February 28, 2023 in Washington, DC.
Countess Cemal/Getty Images People’s Rally
President Biden announced Wednesday that the White House will forgive more than $6.1 billion in student loan debt for 317,000 borrowers attending art colleges in the U.S. private arts college system.
“The agency falsified data, intentionally misled students, and defrauded borrowers into taking on massive debt while leaving them without bright career prospects at the end of their studies,” Biden said in a statement.
“We will never stop fighting to provide relief to borrowers, hold bad actors accountable, and bring the promise of college to more Americans,” the president added.
The relief would apply to students enrolled in the school system between January 1, 2004 and October 16, 2017, a period during which the U.S. Department of Education found that the art school “pervasively and materially misrepresented future students’ outcomes after graduation.” employment rates, wages and career services during this period,” according to a statement from the Department of Energy.
The Department will immediately begin notifying borrowers eligible for forgiveness, including those who have not yet formally applied for Borrower Defense. Previously paid student loans will also be refunded. The average total available per borrower is approximately $19,000.
The latest round of student loan relief brings the total number of loans approved by the Biden administration to nearly $160 billion for nearly 4.6 million borrowers, an average of nearly $35,000 per student.
