A group of 7,200 former Corinthian College students, along with the attorney general of Massachusetts filed lawsuits yesterday against Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and the Department of Education, accusing it of not following the law by refusing to cancel fraudulent student loans that were made to the plaintiffs.
A copy of the complaint in the case of Vara v. DeVos can be accessed by clicking here.
Last December, a judge ordered the Department of Education to stop its “aggressive” collection efforts by seizing the tax returns of individuals who had attended a Corinthian school and still had outstanding loans. But rather than cancel the loans of all 7,200 individuals, the Education Department stopped its collection efforts on just two plaintiffs.
“Even when presented with irrefutable evidence of fraud and deception by Corinthian, Secretary DeVos continues to side with her allies in the predatory for-profit school industry, rather than follow federal law and provide our students with the relief they need to rebuild their lives,” said Maura Healey, the attorney general of Massachusetts, in a statement. “Together with the Project on Predatory Student Lending, we are suing to force the Department to do its job and cancel these loans.”
In a separate case in California, DeVos is facing a contempt of court charge for allegedly violating a court order to stop collection efforts on loans made to other Corinthian students.
Corinthian College was a for-profit university that shut down in 2015 after allegations that it targeted low-income individuals by making false representations about job placement rates. Students were saddled with student loan debts that they could not afford to repay.
