Feds forgive more for-profit college student loans

The Education Department announced Wednesday the for-profit DeVry University lied about its graduate employment rate to entice new students. The college is headquartered in Naperville, Ill., but largely offers online learning and has several campuses across the country. The administration will forgive roughly $71 million of student loan debt from at least 1,800 former DeVry students, bringing relief for such loans up to $415 million for nearly 16,000 alumni of for-profit schools.

What did the school do? The department alleges school officials knowingly doctored success rate numbers between 2008 and 2015, reporting 90 percent of graduates found jobs within six months of graduation when the actual rate was closer to 58 percent. DeVry reached a $100 million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission in 2016 over similar allegations and with the attorneys general of New York and Massachusetts in 2017. A university spokesperson said the allegations predate the school’s current administration, which disagrees with the Education Department’s conclusions. This is the first time the department has canceled debt from a college still in operation.

Dig deeper: Read Esther Eaton’s report in Schooled about the Education Department’s crackdown on for-profit university false advertising.