Hayes seeks help for those harmed by forprofit college closures

WASHINGTON — A national wave of shuttering forprofit colleges has left some lowincome students unable to get their undergraduate degrees, after using up their federal aid eligibility at the closing institutions.

More than 1,000 students from the state have applied to the U.S. Department of Education for “borrower defense” in the hopes of getting studentloan forgiveness because their school misled them or engaged in misconduct. These students join more than 239,000 nationwide seeking loan help.

Members of Congress believe many of these students are lowincome student who paid for college with Pell Grants and may have lost their ability to use that grant at a new university to finish their degree.

To address the problem, U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes of Connecticut and two other House Democrats introduced legislation Thursday to restore students’ Pell Grant eligibility if they qualify for loan forgiveness because their school closed or participated in fraud or miconduct. Such a step would likely cost the government millions.

“As a Pell Grant recipient, I know just how vital a lifeline it can be in helping students on their path towards a degree,” Hayes said. “We should be working to help students defrauded by forprofit colleges, not trapping them without a useable degree and no means to pay. One way to do that is to restore Pell Grant eligibility to the victims of predatory forprofit colleges.”

Hayes was a public school teacher in Waterbury, prior to her 2018 election to Congress, and was selected as the 2016 National Teacher of the Year. Her financial disclosures indicate that Hayes is still paying off $115,000 to $300,000 in student debt.

A Senate companion to Hayes’ legislation was introduced by Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat running for president.

Under current law, students are eligible for 12 semesters of Pell Grant eligibility. If those semesters are used up at a college that conducts fraud or goes bellyup before they get their degree, students can’t more semesters of eligibility to use at another university to finish their education.

Not all 240,000 students who applied for borrower defense received Pell Grants, but it’s likely many of them did, Hayes’ office said.

“If every single applicant was eligible for a full 12 semesters of Pell assistance, the total [cost to the government] would come out to around $17 million,” said Sam Dorn, press secretary for Hayes. “However, many of these students do not need their full eligibility restored or are not eligible for Pell Grants, so the actual number would be significantly lower.”

An investigation by the Chronicle of Higher Education found that of the 1,230 college campuses that closed in the past five years, 88 percent were forprofit schools. It found roughly 450,000 students were displaced by forprofit college closures over the past five years.

Moreover, nearly 70 percent of students who attended the closed colleges received needbased Pell Grants, the Chronicle found. A majority were also racial minorities.

In the past two years, two forprofit colleges in Connecticut closed.

In April 2018, RidleyLowell Business and Technical Institute, a school that offered dental, medical, beauty and electrical certificates, abruptly shut its doors at campuses in Danbury and New London, abruptly shut its doors and emailed students that all future classes were closed. The school cited financial and operational challenges.

Lincoln College of New England in Southington, Conn. also closed down in Dec. 31, 2018. The school offered a dental hygeine and mortuary science program.

In both cases, the state Office of Higher Education assisted with transfering students to new schools and, where needed, discharging their student loans.

Only two forprofit colleges now operate in the state, Paier College of Art in Hamden and Post University in Waterbury, according to the Office of Higher Education.