Connecticut lawmakers are pushing back against lawsuits that threaten the state’s colleges and universities with the loss hundreds of thousands of dollars in tuition paid by financially struggling parents, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Gov. Dannel Malloy (D) signed a law earlier this month that discourages trustees who handle consumer bankruptcy cases from suing both public and private institutions to get back tuition money parents paid before filing for bankruptcy protection. State Attorney General George Jepsen said in testimony this spring that the dozens of lawsuits filed in the state’s bankruptcy courts in recent years have “had an adverse financial impact on both public and private colleges and universities.” His office defends suits filed against public colleges and universities. The lawsuits arise from federal law that gives trustees the power to recover money that a bankrupt person spent years before filing if the person didn’t get value for the expense. Trustees have argued that parents who paid a tuition bill for an adult child didn’t get value for that expense, meaning the funds can be recouped to pay other debts. Several colleges in other states, including Johnson & Wales University in Providence, R.I., and Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., have hired lawyers to argue that parents who help their children attend college do get some form of value.
