ABC News Today

The U.S. Department of Education announced Tuesday that it will cancel all federal student debt taken on by borrowers who were defrauded by ITT Technical Institute since 2005, delivering $3.9 billion in aid to about 208,000 people.

ITT Educational Services was once one of the largest operators of for-profit technical schools in the US and closed in 2016. Borrowers should not apply for the relief, the Education Department said.

The Department of Education found that ITT Tech engaged in widespread and pervasive misrepresentations, including lying about students’ ability to get a job or transfer credits.

More from Personal Finance:
30 Companies Helping Employees Pay Off Student Loans
Here’s how to save on groceries amid food price inflation
A typical job switch netted a salary increase of nearly 10%, the study found

“The evidence shows that for years, ITT leaders intentionally misled students about the quality of their programs in order to benefit from federal student loan programs, without considering the hardships this would cause,” he said. said the US Secretary of Education, Miguel Cardona, in a statement.

“The Biden-Harris administration will continue to advocate for borrowers who have been defrauded by their colleges, while working to strengthen oversight and enforcement to protect current students from similar fraud and abuse,” Cardona added.

So far, the Biden-Harris administration has approved the cancellation of nearly $32 billion in student loans for 1.6 million borrowers.

“President Biden continues to use existing legal authority to forgive more student loan debt than any previous president,” said higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz.

Still, the White House is currently under intense pressure to cancel student debt for all borrowers, and President Joe Biden has pledged to make a decision on how to proceed, if at all. end of the month