“When Corinthian shut down, all these veterans had collection agencies coming after them for loans” they were unaware of, Carrie Wofford, president of advocacy group Veterans Education Success, said in an interview with Military.com. “Finally, the veterans are gonna stop being hassled by collection agencies for fraudulent loans.”
Corinthian was found to have tricked veterans into enrolling by having sales people pose as “Pentagon advisers” and using official military seals in marketing materials, Wofford said.
Many veterans used their GI Bill benefits at Corinthian, but still have loans for several reasons. In addition to Corinthian’s practice of signing people up for unauthorized loans, some veterans who used the GI Bill also applied for loans because the benefits didn’t cover all their costs, or because Corinthian pressured them into applying for loans, Wofford said.
While Wofford celebrated the loan relief, she also said many veterans won’t be whole again until Congress restores all the GI Bill benefits Corinthian tricked them out of.
In 2017, Congress passed a law restoring GI Bill benefits for those who were enrolled within 120 days of the school closing. But that still leaves the “vast majority” of veterans cheated out of those benefits with no recourse, Wofford said.
“Congress has not yet agreed to pass a law that would give you your GI Bill back if you were scammed,” she said, “and that’s a travesty.”
Read the full story in the Military.com here.