The Biden administration will make it easier for students defrauded by for-profit schools to get federal student loan forgiveness under new rules set to go into effect on July 1, setting up a speedier path for debt relief for potentially hundreds of thousands of borrowers, the Wall Street Journal reported. Students who have been misled by schools about job prospects or are victims of other types of fraudulent behavior and aggressive recruiting will be able to have their federal debt discharged in full by the Education Department. The new regulations, known as Borrower Defense to Repayment, complete a reversal of a Trump administration rule that slowed discharges and provided partial relief to borrowers whose claims were approved. The new rules will make it easier for borrowers to file claims for relief as groups, a change that borrower advocates expect will boost the number of recipients of debt forgiveness without burdening them with a detailed and lengthy application. The overhauled program “will end the bureaucratic nightmares of the past,” said Education Secretary Miguel Cardona.
