Women sue Education Dept., claim for-profit college defrauded them

WASHINGTON — Two women who claim they were defrauded by a for-profit college have sued the Education Department and a private loan servicer.

The lawsuit, filed yesterday in federal court in New York, comes as the department begins work this week rewriting Obama administration rules designed to boost protections for students defrauded by their schools.

Tina Carr and Yvette Colon had attended SanfordBrown Institute, a for-profit college in New York, and are seeking to have their student loans erased. Their lawsuit cites federal and state law that prohibits fraud as well as the contract they signed with their school. Previous lawsuits invoked the department’s own regulations in their search for loan relief.

Attorneys for the two students say the new approach is necessary because Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has stalled consideration of tens of thousands of similar claims from borrowers.

The Department of Education did not respond to a request for comment.

Navient, the loan servicer named, said it doesn’t have the authority to decide the fate of student loans.

Work on student loan relief has largely stalled since DeVos assumed office. She has halted two Obama-era initiatives that called for more protections for students and has accumulated a backlog of some 87,000 loan cancellation claims.