- The Federal Student Aid office just found violations that cost taxpayers $6 million from 2015 to 2018.
- The defunct RWM Fiber Optics incurred 16 violations, while 2,100 former students of Harrison College are eligible for debt relief.
- The Education Dept. is in the process of reforming the student-loan system amidst calls to cancel all debt.
In the Education Department's latest move to protect student-loan borrowers, it found on Tuesday that violations of student-aid requirements and school closures from 2015 to 2018 cost taxpayers over $6 million in liabilities.
The Federal Student Aid (FSA) office announced in a press release that RWM Fiber Optics - a for-profit, now defunct school - improperly handled
"All institutions are expected to serve the best interests of their students, not serve themselves," FSA Chief Operating Officer
Specifically, FSA found that before RWM's closure in 2018, the school falsified information to make students eligible for aid they did not qualify for, fictionalized diplomas that students did not earn, and submitted student aid information without the student's knowledge without checking if the information was accurate.
RWM also used the Federal Work Study program to pay students to clean bathrooms and collect garbage, which didn't help further students' careers as the program required. FSA concluded that the school conducted 16 "egregious" violations worth over $2.4 million.
FSA also found that students who attended Harrison College, which closed in 2018, are eligible to get their students loans discharged given that they were unable to complete their programs due to the school's closure. Harrison owes almost $4 million to taxpayers who paid to forgive loans for those borrowers.
Insider previously reported that Cordray's role in student aid could signify a possible remedy to the
Last month, he rescinded a Trump-era
But while the department is in the process of implementing changes to the student-loan system as a whole, through reforming loan forgiveness programs and working to give eligible borrowers student debt relief, the process could take years, and advocates want President Joe