WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration will cancel $130 million in debt for 7,400 student borrowers who enrolled at the now-defunct CollegeAmerica in Colorado from 2006 through July 1, 2020, the Education Department said.
CollegeAmerica, a private institution, shut down in September 2020 after an investigation by Colorado’s attorney general found it made widespread misrepresentations about the salaries and employment rates of its graduates, the department said in a statement.
Biden said in a statement that borrowers at CollegeAmerica “were lied to, ripped off, and saddled with mountains of debt.” He said his administration has approved $14.7 billion in relief for 1.1 million borrowers “whose colleges took advantage of them or closed abruptly”.
Biden has made addressing mounting U.S. student debt a top priority since taking office in January 2021, including by pursuing a plan to provide $430 billion in loan relief.
The Supreme Court blocked that plan in a June 30 ruling. Biden has vowed to pursue the relief through new measures.
(Reporting by Rami Ayyub; Editing by Chris Reese and Jonathan Oatis)