Biden Administration Announces $6 Billion Debt Forgiveness for Art Institute Graduates

The Biden administration stated Wednesday that it would forgive $6 billion in school debt for Art Institute graduates.

The relief would be provided to 317,000 borrowers after it was determined that the school “falsified data, knowingly misled students, and cheated borrowers into taking on mountains of debt without leading to promising career prospects at the end of their studies.”

The Borrower Defense program provides a remedy by allowing those who have been scammed by their colleges to have their loans canceled.

Among the violations against the Art Institutes is misleading advertising claiming that 80 percent of alumni found work in their area within six months of graduation. In addition, the marketing included false income data from the school’s graduates.

“For more than a decade, hundreds of thousands of aspiring students borrowed billions of dollars to attend The Art Institutes and received nothing but lies in exchange. That ends today, owing to the Biden-Harris Administration’s collaboration with the attorneys general of Iowa, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania,” said Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. “We must continue to protect borrowers from predatory institutions — and work toward a higher education system that is affordable to students and taxpayers.”

In the announcement, Biden explicitly attacked Trump, saying, “While my predecessor looked the other way when colleges defrauded students and borrowers, I promised to take this issue on directly to provide borrowers with the relief they need and deserve.”

The most recent round of forgiveness takes the total amount of assistance provided to student loan holders by the Biden administration to $160 billion for 4.6 million individuals.