The Biden administration has forgiven an additional $6.1 billion in student loan debt.
According to a statement from May 1 press release from the White House, President Joe Biden forgave the debt of borrowers who went to The Art Institutes, a former private system of art schools that used to have campuses operating in parts of the United States.
The statement mentioned that these borrowers had their debt forgiven because there were accusations that The Art Institutes “falsified data, knowingly misled students, and tricked borrowers into taking on a lot of debt without leading to good career prospects after their studies.”
“Over the past three years, my Administration has approved nearly $29 billion in debt relief for 1.6 million borrowers whose colleges took advantage of them, closed abruptly, or were covered by related court settlements, compared to just 53,500 borrowers who had ever gotten their debt canceled through these types of actions before I took office. And in total, we have approved debt cancellation for nearly 4.6 million Americans through various actions,” Biden said, per the press release.
The Art Institutes announced in September 2023 that all eight remaining locations, including its Dallas campus, would permanently close, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
The closures were due to a multitude of issues, including losing its accreditation in 2018, falling enrollment numbers, and financial problems, per The Art Newspaper.
The network of colleges emailed students and faculty on September 22, 2023, to announce the closures, which became effective just eight days later, per CultureMap Dallas.
The closure resulted from “a culmination of events over the past decade, both external and internal to the campus operations. … The colleges, which already were dealing with the legacy challenges that arose under prior ownership, were unable to absorb the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic had on schools teaching hands-on and equipment-intensive programs such as culinary arts and fashion design,” the email read, per CultureMap Dallas.
The Biden administration has faced criticism for its continued cancellation of student loan debt. Federal debt has been on the rise, with the current national debt sitting at $34.56 trillion, according to FiscalData.
Eighteen states have sued the Biden administration to block student debt cancellation, as covered by DX.
“The President does not get to thwart the Constitution when it suits his political agenda,” Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey said following his filing of a lawsuit.
“I’m filing suit to halt his brazen attempt to curry favor with some citizens by forcing others to shoulder their debts. The Constitution will continue to mean something as long as I’m Attorney General,” added Bailey.
