Attorney General Phil Weiser secures loan forgiveness for 2,440 Colorado student borrowers defrauded by ITT Technical Institute
Aug. 16, 2022 (DENVER)—Attorney General Phil Weiser applauded the announcement today that the U.S. Department of Education is forgiving the federal student loans of more than 208,000 ITT Technical Institute students nationwide—including 2,440 Colorado borrowers—after the school misled students about the value of an ITT degree.
The department will forgive about $3.9 billion in student loans, which includes nearly $46 million for Colorado borrowers. Weiser led a bipartisan coalition of 24 states and the District of Columbia in filing a borrower defense application last year asking the Department of Education to forgive the loans of students who attended ITT and who were misled by the school.
“I applaud the U.S. Department of Education’s move to protect these borrowers,” Weiser said. “When hardworking Coloradans sought to further their education, ITT convinced them to take out substantial loans by offering empty promises of future employment that would allegedly allow them to pay down their debt. This misrepresentation cost people time and money as well as created significant stress and anxiety. We are committed to helping Colorado students wronged by predatory practices and will continue to defend Colorado student loan borrowers from them.”
Relying in part on Colorado’s submission of evidence, the Department of Education found that the now defunct for-profit misrepresented the value of its education, claiming that students who enrolled would find high-paying jobs upon graduation with a constant rate of earning growth. From 2005 until its closure in September 2016, ITT misrepresented the projected annual earnings for ITT graduates at $100,000 more than the average earnings of workers with the same credentials.
Under Weiser’s leadership, the Department of Law has worked hard to defend Colorado student loan borrowers and hold student loan servicers and for-profit colleges accountable for deceiving and misleading students. With today’s announcement, Weiser has secured over $90 million in refunds or debt cancellations for more than 11,000 Coloradans since 2019.
The Colorado Student Loan Servicers Act created a student loan ombudsperson in the attorney general’s office as a resource for student loan borrowers throughout the state. The ombudsperson is responsible for receiving, reviewing, and attempting to resolve complaints from student loan borrowers. Borrowers struggling with their student loans can click here to file a complaint with the student loan ombudsperson.
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