October 29, 2025

Chairman Bill Cassidy, MD
Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions
428 Senate Dirksen Office Building
Washington, DC, 20510
via email (ValueTransparency@help.senate.gov)

Dear Senator Cassidy,

We were pleased to see the Committee’s interest in the topic, ”increasing college costs and value transparency for students and families.” We commend the Committee for its continued focus on supporting the long-term success of students and families as they seek to make informed choices about higher education.  We appreciate your willingness to hear our thoughts.

Veterans Education Success is a nonprofit organization that works on a bipartisan basis to advance higher education success for veterans, service members, and military families, and to protect the integrity and promise of the GI Bill® and other federal postsecondary education programs. We also provide free counseling and legal assistance to students using their GI Bill and military benefits.

Today, we would be grateful for your attention to our specific recommendations to improve the Master Promissory Note, a tool of educational finance with significant implications that has had the inadvertent effect of loading veterans up with loans they did not want. As documented in our detailed report, Veterans with Student Loans They Never Authorized or Wanted[1], countless veterans have reported being signed up for unwanted or undisclosed student loans, often while using fully funded GI Bill benefits that should have covered all costs.

Many of these students report not understanding what they were signing, and our organization strongly believes that the name “Master Promissory Note” is not readily understood by the vast majority of students. The problem is so widespread that it is one of the most common complaints received at Veterans Education Success out of thousands of complaints over the past 13 years.

These students paint a harrowing picture:

  • “We signed everything on electrical notepads, so us, as students, we didn’t actually know what we were signing for. They took out loans in our names. I’m left with debt and no degree and wasting my GI Bill.” (Travis Craig, Army Veteran, ITT Technical Institute)
  • “I told the school that I wanted to use my GI Bill and that if for some reason it was denied to cancel everything because I couldn’t afford it and that I didn’t want student loans [but loans were taken out in my name anyway]” (Student C.L., University of Phoenix)
  • “I used AD [active duty] TA [tuition assistance] and ended up getting loans over $40,000 and as of today I still don’t know why. I used my TA and that should have paid for more than it did.” (Student A.D., American InterContinental University)
  • “I was enrolled into a loan for the first month of the programs and I wasn’t aware until I started getting the letters after I had graduated from [University of Phoenix]. The loan was used to pay off the beginning class and the whole time I thought it was taken care of through my GI Bill.” (Student J.G., University of Phoenix)
  • “I was under the impression my GI Bill covered everything and during semester changes I was told I had money I could have. I didn’t know what a disbursement check was but they said I had money. Little did I know I had to pay it all back and now, ten years later, I am $40,000 plus in student debt.” (Student J.C., International Academy of Design and Technology)
  • “I was signed up for loans I did not know about when my GI Bill ran out.” (Student D.S., Ashford University)
  • “While signing up for the GI Bill, I was under the impression that I was signing up for grants or money that was to accompany the GI Bill for recipients. Now that I have over $40,000 in student loans, I feel like I was left holding the bag. My credit has taken a hit.” (Student C.R., Ashford University)
  • Veteran Eric Luongo testified before a House committee that he still has over $100,000 in student loans he was unaware of from DeVry, even though he was assured he could attend for free through funding from his GI Bill and Pell Grants.[2]
  • ​​Student S.N. believed that her vocational rehabilitation benefits would cover the entire cost of her Kaplan program. However, she later learned that Kaplan borrowed money on her behalf without her knowledge. She called Nelnet, her loan servicer, and a Nelnet representative told her that Kaplan had borrowed the maximum amount that S.N. was able to borrow.
  • Student A.M. believed that the GI Bill would cover the cost of his program, but he believes Kaplan took out loans for him without his permission. He says he did not sign any paperwork, but somehow incurred $28,692 in debt.
  • Student C.B. specifically told American Military University when she enrolled that she did not want to take out any loans because she believed her GI Bill benefits would cover tuition. However, after leaving the school, she learned that she owed over $4,000 in loans that she never wanted and never knew were taken out. “This is devastating on top of everything else.”
  • Brian Whitehead testified during an October 2021 public comment period of the Department of Education in conjunction with its negotiated rulemaking. Brian explained that, when he enrolled, ITT Tech told him that his GI Bill benefits would cover his entire education, but this was not true. Thirteen years after earning a two-year degree, he still owes almost $50,000 in federal student loan debt and another $40,000 of private student loan debt. He explained that his job barely pays the bills and he has to ask for help from his family and friends to make ends meet.[3]
  • Michelle Poitier testified in October 2021 at the Education Department’s negotiated rulemaking public comment period. Ms. Poitier is a Navy veteran who graduated from the University of Phoenix in 2010. She had $30,000 in student loan debt that she didn’t realize she was signing up for on top of using her VA benefits.[4]

To protect students from unintentionally signing for loans they do not want, we encourage the Committee to consider the following suggestions:

  • Rename the Master Promissory Note or At Least Add a Common-Sense Subtitle. Most students do not understand what the Master Promissory Note is or what they are signing. Few people know what the word “promissory” means, and “master” is even more confusing to most students. The document should be given a clear, common-sense name, such as “Student Loan Agreement.” At the very least, there should be a clear, common-sense subtitle that explains its purpose The document should also include a clear warning at the beginning, such as a stop sign image with the message: “Stop: Do not sign this unless you want student loans. You will have to pay back the loans.”
  • Require Annual Renewal, At Least for Funded Military-Connected Students. The Master Promissory Note is currently valid for 10 years, which is far longer than any college should be allowed to take out loans in a student’s name. As student veteran K.S. told us, “I used my GI Bill to cover costs of my last two degrees and then get student aid relief thinking that I only had $10,000 in student loans. I found out that on top of [my] GI Bill, AIU had put in for other student loans so now I am up to around $25,000 without even knowing about the additional loans.” We urge your Committee to change the law to require a student’s affirmative annual renewal to confirm that the student continues to want new loans. If the Committee does not wish to make this change for all students, we ask the Committee to at least consider protecting military-connected students who have funding from the Departments of War or Veterans Affairs from loans they do not want. This could be accomplished by changing the law to require colleges to get affirmative, annual renewal agreements from such students. Each renewal should include financial counseling that explains the loan amount and repayment obligation, in the presence of a witness not affiliated with the institution.

We appreciate your attention to these recommendations. Taking these steps will protect service members, veterans, and their families from loans they do not want, protect all students and taxpayers from unnecessary or deceptive lending practices, and strengthen confidence in federal student aid programs.

For any additional information on this, please feel free to contact us by email at Will@VetsEdSuccess.org or by phone at 703-379-3822.

Sincerely,

William Hubbard
Vice President for Veterans & Military Policy

[1] Veterans Education Success, Veterans with Student Loans They Never Authorized or Wanted (Mar. 2022), https://vetsedsuccess.org/veterans-with-student-loans-they-never-authorized-or-wanted/.

[2] Veterans Education Success, Testimony of Student Veteran Eric Luongo (Mar. 12, 2019), https://vetsedsuccess.org/testimony-of-student-veteran-eric-luongo/.

[3] Veterans Education Success, Student Veteran Submission: Brian Whitehead Testimony to the Department of Education (Oct. 7, 2021), https://vetsedsuccess.org/student-veteran-submission-brian-whitehead-testimony-to-the-department-of-education/.

[4] Veterans Education Success, Student Veteran Submission: Michelle Poitier Testimony to the Department of Education (Oct. 5, 2021), https://vetsedsuccess.org/student-veteran-submission-michelle-poitier-testimony-to-the-department-of-education/.

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