The Biden administration is canceling nearly $37 million of federal student loan debt for more than 1,200 borrowers who attended the University of Phoenix because it found that the for-profit school misled students about job prospects.
Taking a narrower approach to student debt forgiveness, the Biden administration has continued to cancel some borrowers’ debts under existing programs after the Supreme Court blocked its broad student loan forgiveness program that promised to forgive up to $20,000 for low- and middle-income borrowers.
Similar to Wednesday’s announcement about the University of Phoenix, the Department of Education canceled $72 million in federal student loan debt in August for more than 2,300 borrowers who attended the for-profit Ashford University in California.
Altogether, the administration has canceled more than $117 billion of the nearly $1.7 trillion of outstanding federal student loan debt since 2021.
The former University of Phoenix students now eligible for debt relief were enrolled at the school between September 21, 2012, and December 31, 2014, and have already applied for loan forgiveness under a program called borrower defense to repayment. The program has been in place for decades and allows people to apply for debt relief if they believe their college misled or defrauded them.
Building on an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Education found that the University of Phoenix falsely represented that its partnerships with thousands of corporations, including Fortune 500 companies, would give students hiring preferences.
“The University of Phoenix brazenly deceived prospective students with false ads to get them to enroll,” said Federal Student Aid chief operating officer Richard Cordray in a statement.
“Students who trusted the school and wanted to better their…
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