On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Education announced it will make $1.1 billion in closed school discharges available to an additional 115,000 borrowers who attended the now-defunct ITT Technical Institute (ITT). This decision is based on a new review of the problems leading up to ITT’s closure.
These borrowers did not complete their degree or credential and left ITT on or after March 31, 2008. The Department estimates that 43 percent of these borrowers are currently in default.
This action extends relief to borrowers whose attendance at ITT overlapped with a period during which the institution engaged in widespread misrepresentations about the true state of its financial health and misled students into taking out unaffordable private loans that were allegedly portrayed as grant aid. ITT’s malfeasance drove its financial resources away from educating students in order to keep the school in business for years longer than it likely would otherwise have, resulting in debts that are being discharged starting today. Approximately 7,000 of the borrowers covered by today’s closed school discharge announcement also have approved borrower defense to repayment claims.
“For years, ITT hid its true financial state from borrowers while luring many of them into taking out private loans with misleading and unaffordable terms that may have caused borrowers to leave school,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. “Today’s action continues the Department’s efforts to improve and use its targeted loan relief authorities to deliver meaningful help to student borrowers. At the same time, the continued cost of addressing the wrongdoing of ITT and other predatory institutions yet again highlights the need for stronger and faster accountability throughout the federal financial aid system.”
Under the Higher Education Act and applicable regulations, the Secretary of Education discharges the loans of borrowers and refunds any amounts paid if the borrowers did not complete their program of study because of their school’s closure. This applies to borrowers with loans from the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan Program, the Federal Family Education Loan Program, and the Federal Perkins Loan Program. To be eligible for a closed school discharge, the borrower must not have completed their program or transferred their credits or hours to another school. Discharges are also available to any borrower who withdrew from the institution within a few months of its closing. The Secretary of Education may, however, extend this period based on exceptional circumstances.
After a thorough review of the circumstances leading to ITT’s closure and the preceding years of misrepresentations and misconduct, Secretary Cardona is exercising his authority to extend the closed school discharge window to March 31, 2008 for former ITT students. This date was chosen based upon a review of external evidence from the bankruptcy court proceedings for ITT, filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). March 31, 2008 is when the company’s executives publicly disclosed the start of a financial scheme that kicked off a series of misrepresentations to hide the true nature of the school’s finances following a public loss of outside financing, which led to shifting additional costs to students and hindered its ability to invest in delivering quality education to students.