Chicago Latino Newspaper, Lawndale News, Latino Bilingual Newspapers, Su Noticiero Bilingue » Attorney General Raoul Urges Department of Education to Implement Rules to Provide Debt Forgiveness to Federal Student Loan Borrowers

Attorney General Kwame Raoul has joined a coalition of 18 attorneys general calling on the U.S. Department of Education to quickly implement recently proposed regulations that would provide needed relief to some of the nation’s most burdened student loan borrowers. In their comment letter to the department, Raoul and a coalition of attorneys general call for the implementation of legislation that would eliminate or reduce student loan payments for certain groups of federal student loan borrowers. Raoul and the coalition emphasize the critical need for significant debt relief to address the nationwide student debt crisis, which disproportionately burdens low-income borrowers and borrowers of color. Specifically, the regulations proposed by the department are intended to provide critical debt relief:

• Borrowers whose student loan balances have increased as a result of accrued and capitalized interest, and borrowers with older loans. These borrowers were particularly burdened by student loan servicer misconduct and the department’s prior poor policy choices.

• Borrowers who attended a school that failed to meet its obligations to students. Under the proposed regulations, the department would provide debt relief to borrowers who attended schools that lost Title IV eligibility due to institutional problems related to student performance and to schools that the department determined failed to provide sufficient value to their students. These borrowers have not benefited from the education they were promised through their federal loans and should not be left holding the bag because of institutional failures.

• Borrowers who would qualify for relief under other federal student loan programs such as income-driven repayment plans and the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, but have failed to enroll in these programs, often because of the difficulties they encounter in the complex federal loan repayment system.