If you took out a federal student loan to pay for classes at a college operated by ITT Technical Institute between January 2005 and September 2016, that debt will soon be forgiven. The U.S. Department of Education recently announced that 208,000 borrowers will have $3.9 billion of federal loans discharged as part of this action.
According to the Department of Education announcement, the private, for-profit ITT “engaged in widespread and pervasive misrepresentations related to the ability of students to get a job or transfer credits, and lying about the programmatic accreditation of ITT’s associate degree in nursing.”
The Department of Education stated that borrowers will have the federal student loans they received to attend ITT discharged without any additional action on their part.
The LA County Board of Supervisors proclaimed August 2022 as “Student Loan Debt Awareness Month” throughout the County of Los Angeles.
ITT Tech operated 14 campuses in California, including three in Los Angeles County (San Dimas, Sylmar, Torrance), according to archived online materials.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau first sued ITT in 2014, alleging that ITT pressured its students into taking out high-cost private loans even though ITT knew most of its students would ultimately default. In 2019, the CFPB obtained a judgment barring ITT from offering or providing student loans. The CFPB also obtained judgments against several entities for providing substantial assistance to ITT in violation of the Consumer Financial Protection Act by owning and managing ITT’s private student loans.
In June, the Department of Education announced similar federal debt relief for former Corinthians Colleges students.
For more information about available student loan relief and programs including the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, visit the Center for Financial Empowerment’s new student loan debt webpage.
