FRANKFORT, Ky. (LEX 18) – Kentucky’s attorney general on Wednesday urged federal education authorities to discharge the loans of students at for-profit colleges that closed while they were enrolled.
According to a news release by Attorney General Andy Beshear’s office, he and several other attorneys general are pressing U.S. Education Department Secretary Betsy DeVos to provide the loan relief as part of “borrower defense” regulations that went into effect Oct. 16.
“In Kentucky students attending schools that closed have been left with no degree or benefit and substantial student loan debt, and they are entitled to have their loans discharged with no further action on their part,” Beshear said in a statement.
Eligible students must have been enrolled in a for-profit college that closed on or after Nov. 1, 2013, and who did not re-enroll at another eligible school within three years of the closure.
According to the AG’s office, about 1,400 such schools closed in 2014 and 2015 and the number of students affected by the issue runs into the tens of thousands. The office says they are eligible for about $400 million in debt relief.
The office says 42 campuses in Kentucky closed since November 2013, including Corinthian Colleges, ITT Tech in Lexington and Louisville, as well as 10 Kentucky Daymar College campuses.
