Letter to the Hon. John King, Secretary of Education - Extend Federal Loan Forgiveness, Ensure Students Don't Pay For School's Mistakes

Letter

Thank you for your continued work to protect students that are the victims of fraud and school closures in higher education. As you know, Star Career Academy, headquartered in Cherry Hill and with campuses in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania, abruptly closed on November 15, 2016. This closure leaves students across all three states with considerable uncertainty about their future.

We understand that the Department of Education (Department) has been in contact with Star Career Academy to gather pertinent information about its closure, and appreciate your continued commitment to ensuring that the full range of the Department's resources are available to impacted students. We urge the Department to expeditiously notify all Star Career Academy students of their federal loan discharge options, as well as any other resources available to them.

Additionally, we urge the Department to extend closed school discharge eligibility to all students who withdrew after October 29, 2015, when a New Jersey jury ordered Star Career Academy to pay over $9 million to students after the school was found to be in violation of the state's Consumer Fraud Protection Act. We believe that it is reasonable to extend federal loan discharge eligibility to students who withdrew from Star Career Academy following a jury finding that their school had committed fraud, and that this lawsuit constitutes extraordinary circumstances that would allow the Department to exercise its existing legal authority to extend the eligibility period.

Students should not have to suffer for the mistakes made by their school, and the Department must work to ensure impacted students have access to high quality and affordable options to continue their education. It is also critical that the Department collaborate with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to ensure that any veterans who were enrolled at Star Career Academy are notified of all information and resources available to them, so as to allow them to make informed decisions about how to best use remaining GI Bill benefits.

Again, thank you for your work to prioritize the needs of our nation's students, and we appreciate your attention to this urgent matter.