Corinthian College students to meet with federal regulators

Former students of Corinthian College, who are refusing to pay back fraudulent student education loans, will meet with federal regulators on Tuesday.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the Department of Education have agreed to hear the students’ demands for debt relief.

In September, the CFPB sued Corinthian College for luring students into expensive “Genesis” loans to cover tuition by advertising bogus job prospects and career services.

Though the bureau and the Education Department secured more than $480 million in debt relief for borrowers’s  last month, that money is only to relieve the private Genesis loans. 

Laura Hanna, a Debt Collective organizer, said students took out roughly $1 billion in federal loans to pay for Corinthian college degrees, which some experts say are worthless. 

“Individuals depending on how long they went to school, borrowed anywhere from $30,000 to $90,000 in some cases,” she said. “And that’s a mix of federal and private loans.”

Corinthian has about 74,000 students at more than 100 campuses around the country and according to the CFPB, the school charged more than $75,000 in tuition and fees for a bachelor’s degree.

Debt Collective, the debtor’s union that helped students organize a debt strike last month, argues that the Department of Education can fully discharge student loans from schools that violate state consumer protection laws. 

“They are demanding not only that the federal regulator of the nation’s colleges and universities do its job and cancel the debt of all Corinthian students, but also lay the groundwork for future claims against predatory lenders,” Debt Collective member Luke Herrine said in a statement.

More than 300 students have filed defense of repayment forms that will be turned in to the Education Department this week. about 100 students are on a debt strike, refusing to make payments in an effort to push the Education Department to discharge the fraudulent loans.