December 8, 2021
VETERANS SCAMMED BY FOR-PROFIT COLLEGES TO TESTIFY
AT FEDERAL HEARINGS ABOUT STUDENT LOAN FORGIVENESS
FOR VETS RIPPED OFF BY DECEPTIVE PRACTICES
SAN DIEGO VET TO TESTIFY – WEDNESDAY
Given the number of veterans and service members in the San Diego community, and the state AG’s case against San Diego based for-profit Ashford University, we hope that you’ll let us help you tell a compelling story with an important new hook.
We can help you warn your veteran and college-seeking viewers/readers about:
- How for-profit colleges may try to scam them and how to keep themselves from becoming a victim.
- Help them learn about new rules being put in place to help forgive students’ loans, if they have been ripped off by fraudulent and predatory schools.
STORY ELEMENTS – San Diego Vet, San Diego-based CIAT, Ashford U
- Veteran from San Diego testifying to U.S. Dept of Ed today about the way in which he was preyed upon by the San Diego-based, California Institute of Arts & Technology (CIAT) and another for-profit college to use his GI Bill benefits and (take out other loans) that left him in debt and with worthless course credits.
- We have also received over 100 veteran complaints against San Diego-based Ashford, for having provided false and misleading information to students to persuade them to enroll in the school and then used illegal debt collection practices when students struggled to pay their bills.
- National veterans’ expert/advocate from Veterans Education Success– www.vetsedsuccess.org to provide context about the scale of the problem and how help is on the way as the federal government develops rules to forgive student debt for veterans scammed by fraudulent and predatory schools.
We can connect you with these sources for phone, on-camera/or Zoom interviews or you can email [email protected].
WHEN: WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8TH AT 3:30 PM ET
Video of Veteran Testifying Live at Hearing: Online viewing requires pre-registration form(s) link here.
MORE CONTEXT: The US Department of Ed is making new rules to limit for-profit colleges’ predatory actions targeting student veterans and to create a process for veterans’ loans to be forgiven – if they have attended fraudulent and predatory schools:
- Individual veterans from around the country have asked to testify before the gov’t to share their horror stories of having for-profit colleges defraud them out of their GI Bill benefits – enrolling them in worthless degree programs that left them loaded with student loan debt and depleted of their GI Bill funds.
- Representatives of the nation’s largest veterans and military service organizations have also had a forceful turnout at the hearings.
- Stronger regulations will help student veterans and service members by improving the process by which loans taken out to attend fraudulent and predatory schools, sometimes even taken out without the knowledge of the veterans themselves, can be forgiven.
Veterans are calling on the Department of Education to create strong rules to:
- Provide relief to those who are lied to by their school about key facts including the true cost, whether their credits will transfer, job placement, career counseling, accreditation, and quality of the instruction — by enacting an improved Borrower Defense to Repayment Rule.
- Cancel student loan debts incurred by students attending at, or near, the time when a school closes by improving the procedure to automatically provide relief for students unable to complete their program at the closing school; and,
- Protect student veterans from predatory and abusive for-profit schools that target them with constant aggressive and manipulative recruitment, marketing, and fraud.