Black America Web

More relief is coming to students who attended Westwood College.

After President Joe Biden announces the Student Loan Debit Plan that will erase up to $20,000 in student loans, students who attended the now-defunct Westwood College will have $1.5 Billion dollars removed from their accounts. The 79,000 students affected would have attended the school between January 1, 2002 through November 17, 2015, when it stopped enrolling new borrowers in advance of its 2016 closure.

In a statement on the Department of Education’s website, Under Secretary James Kvaal said “Westwood College’s exploitation of students and abuse of federal financial aid place it in the same circle of infamy occupied by Corinthian Colleges and ITT Technical Institute. Westwood operated on a culture of false promises, lies, and manipulation in order to profit off student debt that burdened borrowers long after Westwood closed. The Biden-Harris Administration will continue ramping up oversight and accountability to protect students and taxpayers from abuse and ensure that executives who commit such harm never work at institutions that receive federal financial aid again.”

The federal government concluded that Westwood “misled prospective students by grossly misrepresenting that its credentials would benefit their career prospects and earning potential—specifically by promising prospective students that they would be employed in their field within six months after graduation and that a Westwood degree would make them “employable for the rest of their lives.” The school’s marketing materials inflated the salary outcomes and job placement rates. This is the latest move in Debt relief for students who attended for-profit schools across the nation. Westwood has campuses in five states including Colorado and Illinois who were the focus of this investigation.

Last week President Biden announced the Student Loan Debt Relief plan which will cancel up to $20,000 in student debt. Student borrowers who received a Pell Grant and meet the income threshold under $125,000 for individuals or $250,000 for families will receive up to the full amount. Others who did not receive a Pell Grant can receive $10,000 in debt cancellation. For more information go to Studentaid.gov/debt-relief.

After today’s announcement, at least $14.5 billion dollars has been removed from student debt during the Biden-Harris Administration.