Biden administration to cancel $5.8B in debt of ex-Corinthian Colleges students

The Biden administration will forgive $5.8 billion in debt owed by 560,000 former students of the collapsed for-profit company Corinthian Colleges.

The Education Department's biggest collective cancellation of federal student loans, the department said Wednesday.

The ruling applies to students who attended Corinthian institutions Everest Institute, WyoTech, and Heald College between 1995 and 2015.

Former students are not needed to apply and will instead get notification from the Education Department of their impending release.

Vice President Harris, who served as California Attorney General during the Corinthian inquiry, is set to join Cardona at the department on Thursday for remarks regarding the action.

Corinthian was formerly a for-profit industry behemoth, educating more than 110,000 students over 105 campuses at its height in 2010. 

However, the firm became the poster child for the industry's worst practices, with significant loan defaults and suspicious programmes.

Corinthian lost access to federal money in 2014 due to fraudulent marketing claims and lying to the government about its graduation statistics, causing the business to sell or liquidate its schools.

According to the Washington Post, White House officials propose to forgive $10,000 in student debt per borrower.

For Americans earning less than $150,000 in the previous year, or less than $300,000 for married couples filing jointly.

The Education Department stated on Wednesday that no final decision had been made.