Colleges have returned $276,434.80 in tuition payments that were made for students whose parents later filed for bankruptcy protection, a Wall Street Journal analysis of more than two dozen lawsuits filed since 2014 has found. Villanova University, Ithaca College and the New York Institute of Technology are just some of the schools that have been sued by bankruptcy trustees. The trustees, who are in charge of recovering money for the debts of the bankrupt parents, argue that financially struggling parents should have paid their own bills instead of college tuition for a child. The Wall Street Journal analysis found that most schools have opted to settle the cases and return the tuition rather than battle expensively in court, though two schools are pushing forward in lawsuits that could lead judges to clarify whether the controversial lawsuits are fair. Four federal lawmakers are backing a bill to ban them.
