Social Security

Aug 24, 2021

For-Profit Schools Target Minority Communities That Typically Owe More Student Debt, Report Says

Over the past decade, a number of for-profit schools have shut down over accusations of misleading students and leading them to take on more debt than they can pay off. A recent report found those schools target minority communities that were already disproportionately burdened by student debt.

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Letters & Memos

Aug 19, 2021

Legal Analysis, and Need for Increased Enforcement, of the Student Loan Sunshine Act

In a memorandum, Sabita Soneji and Leora Friedman of Tycko & Zavareei, LLP outline the legal tools available to hold bad actors accountable for an ongoing scheme to drive students toward predatory private credit.

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Aug 19, 2021

ED, the CFPB, and Borrowers Can All Hold School and Creditors Accountable for Predatory Lending Schemes

Our new legal memo provides a roadmap to ensure that companies are held accountable for unlawful practices.

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Comments

Aug 16, 2021

Advocates Public Comment on Virginia Student Borrower Bill of Rights Implementation

In a public comment to the Virginia State Corporation Commission, SBPC and 12 organizations representing consumers, students, student loan borrowers, and teachers draw attention to industry attempts to circumvent the legislative process, and call on the regulator to faithfully implement the Commonwealth’s new consumer protections.

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Aug 9, 2021

SBPC Applauds Biden Administration for Reversing Trump-era Scheme to Deny Justice to Borrowers Cheated by Student Loan Companies

Today, the U.S. Department of Education rolled back a Trump Administration directive issued by former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos that attempted to block state governments and individual student loan borrowers from seeking justice when student loan companies break the law.

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Aug 6, 2021

SBPC Statement on the Extension of the Student Loan Payment Pause

Before the pandemic, our nation was in the midst of a $1.7 trillion student debt crisis with more than 1-in-4 borrowers already struggling. The Biden Administration has five short months to repair this badly broken system.

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Aug 6, 2021

SBPC Statement on California DFPI Consent Order with Income Share Agreements Servicer Meratas

Today, the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) announced a landmark consent order with New York-based Meratas, Inc., a company that partners with educational institutions to offer students Income Share Agreements or ISAs to finance post-secondary education and training.

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Aug 6, 2021

A Quirk of the Calendar is About to Lead Borrowers to Pay Billions More on their Federal Student Loans. The Department of Education Can Prevent This.

A legal quirk is slated to lead millions of students taking on federal student loans over the next year to face billions of dollars of unnecessary added charges throughout repayment.

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Aug 5, 2021

California Announces Deal to Treat Fintech’s ISAs as Student Loans

State authorities in California struck a deal with a fintech firm to treat a controversial finance product known as income-share agreements as student loans, requiring compliance with the state’s student borrower protection laws.

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Aug 4, 2021

Student Debt In Disguise: How Employers are Using Predatory Debt to Hurt Workers and Hold Back Competition

New evidence indicates that employers nationwide are increasingly leveraging shadow student debt to trap workers into unfair contracts and substandard working conditions. In particular, a growing number of industries and employers are using bait-and-switch tactics to force workers to take on loans and debt through nefarious “training repayment agreements.”

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Aug 2, 2021

Report: For-Profit Institutions Target Communities of Color

Despite pushes to address predatory practices—such as the withholding of Title IV federal financial aid—for-profit institutions are continuing to target communities of color through recruitment and location strategies, according to a new Student Borrower Protection Center report.

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Jul 28, 2021

For-Profit Colleges Target Minority Areas Across America, Study Argues

The Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC) analyzed where for-profit postsecondary institutions located themselves and found patterns suggesting that for-profit schools target neighborhoods composed mostly of people of color.

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Jul 28, 2021

New Report Finds For-Profit Schools Targeting Black and Latino Communities

. The report plots the location of for-profit schools in cities across the Midwest, showing how these institutions often cluster in certain areas to exploit borrowers of color by offering programs of dubious value financed by expensive and hard to repay student debt. Further, new data analysis reveals that, at the national level, for-profit schools are roughly twice as likely to set up in majority Latino or majority Black zip codes as compared…

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Reports

Jul 28, 2021

Mapping Exploitation: Examining For-Profit Colleges as Financial Predators in Communities of Color

This report examines how predatory for-profit institutions are geographically targeting communities of color in cities in the Upper Midwest and across the country. By targeting prospective Black and Latino students with dubious educational programs and high levels of debt, the report shows how these institutions are systematically stripping wealth from these communities.

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Jul 27, 2021

Calling on America’s Public Service Workers: Share Your PSLF Story

This week, for the first time ever, the U.S. Department of Education is asking for the public to share their stories about public service and debt forgiveness. Now is the time to call for the government to keep its promise to public service workers.

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Jul 23, 2021

SBPC Statement on Department of Education Inquiry into the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program

Today, the U.S. Department of Education launched a public inquiry into the broken Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program. In response, SBPC Executive Director Seth Frotman released the following statement.

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Jul 14, 2021

What Borrowers Need to Know About the End of PHEAA’s Federal Student Loan Servicing

Accounts for 8.5 million federal student loan borrowers will have to be transferred to a new servicer in a few short months. Additionally, unless the Biden Administration takes action to extend the payment pause on federal student loans, this large transfer will take place just after payments for tens of millions of borrowers are expected to resume at the end of September.

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Jul 13, 2021

California Has a New ‘Student Loan Bill of Rights.’ Here’s How it Will Help Borrowers

Those borrowers now have more rights under a law that went into effect this year and gained teeth this month with a new ombudsman’s office empowered to review complaints about student loan providers.

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