“We want them to get through the borrower defense backlog,” said Christopher Madaio, vice president for legal affairs at the nonprofit Veterans Education Success.
Many other defrauded veterans need more guidance and support just applying for the forgiveness, Madaio said.
“It’s complicated, and even the Department of Education’s website doesn’t make clear what makes a strong application versus a weak application, and what are good facts to include.”
However, because for-profit schools tend to have higher tuitions than public and nonprofit colleges, veterans who attend them end up needing to borrow. Not all former service members are made aware of this reality, said Carrie Wofford, president of Veterans Education Success.
“Many of them say, ‘The GI will cover everything, and by the way here’s some paperwork you need to sign,’ and it turns out it’s loans,” Wofford said. “That’s one of the many things they lie about.”
“It was an accounting gimmick, but it incentivized for-profit schools to target veterans,” Wofford said. (The American Rescue Plan Act, the $1.9 trillion stimulus package passed in March, addressed this by closing the loophole, but the effective date is delayed until 2023.)
“There’s enough government evidence about some schools that they need to start cutting schools off,” she said. “Why is that school still eligible for federal student aid? Why are they still allowed to get GI Bill [funds]?”
Read the full story at CNBC here.