CBS News
Biden forgives $6.1 billion in student debt for 317,000 borrowers. Here’s who qualifies for relief.
The Biden administration is forgiving $6.1 billion in student debt for 317,000 people who attended The Art Institutes, a for-profit chain of schools that shut down last fall amid allegations of fraud.
The latest effort represents President Joe Biden’s plan to tackle the nation’s $1.7 trillion in student debt after the Supreme Court last year blocked his administration’s plan for broad-based college loan forgiveness.
The Art Institutes, which operated branches in cities including Atlanta, Fort Worth, New York and Tampa, shut down permanently in September after the Department of Education found it had misrepresented its graduates’ employment rates and salaries. Hundreds of thousands of students had taken out billions in loans to attend the schools, but “got little but lies in return,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a statement on Wednesday.
“We must continue to protect borrowers from predatory institutions — and work toward a higher education system that is affordable to students and taxpayers,” Cardona added.
In a separate statement, Mr. Biden said his administration has forgiven $29 billion in debt for 1.6 million students “whose colleges took advantage of them, closed abruptly or were covered by related court settlements.”
In conjunction with its previously announced debt relief, the Biden administration said it has forgiven a total of more than $160 billion for nearly 4.6 million borrowers, a number that includes today’s announcement.
In the case of The Art Institutes, the Education Department’s investigation found that the company falsely claimed that 80% of its graduates found jobs in their fields of study within six months of graduation. In reality, the figure never rose above 57%, the department said.
The school also allegedly misrepresented its graduates’ earnings and annualized the estimated incomes of grads who were in temporary jobs. For example, One campus included the annual income of tennis star Serena Williams, who had attended the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, in calculating grads’ average income, the department said.
The Art Institutes closed suddenly in September, impacting 1,700 students, according to the New York Times. The closure came after the organization settled for $95.5 million with federal regulators, who had accused it of fraud. Other campuses operated by the school had shut down in 2019 or earlier, according to the The Art Institutes’ website.
Who qualifies for this student loan forgiveness?
The Education Department said it is automatically forgiving $6.1 billion in student debt for 317,000 people who borrowed money to attend any Art Institutes campus on or after January 1, 2004, through October 16, 2017.
Do borrowers need to take any actions?
No, borrowers don’t need to do anything, the Education Department said.
The department will start notifying eligible borrowers on May 1 that they have been approved for their debt to be discharged.
Do borrowers need to continuing making payments?
The Education Department said it will immediately pause loans identified for discharge, meaning that borrowers should not have to make additional payments.
“This ensures that they will not face any further financial demands from these loans during the time needed to process their discharges,” the agency added.
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CBS News
Kamala Harris will speak with “60 Minutes” tomorrow. Here’s what to know for the interview.
Voters will get the chance to hear from Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday as she presents her case for why she should be president in a “60 Minutes” election special.
For decades, “60 Minutes” has featured both Republican and Democratic nominees for presidents, but this year, former President Donald Trump backed out after previously indicating he would be on the show. Correspondent Scott Pelley, who’d been set to interview Trump, will instead travel to Arizona’s Maricopa County, home to more than 60% of Arizona’s voters and a critical battleground in a key swing state.
One thing is certain about the election; with the U.S. deeply involved in both the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, whoever wins on Nov. 5 will become a wartime president.
What Harris will discuss
Israel’s war started one year ago after Hamas launched a surprise terror attack and correspondent Bill Whitaker will discuss the ongoing war with Harris.
Harris will also discuss the economy, immigration, her record as vice president and the differences between herself and Trump.
Democratic vice presidential candidate Gov. Tim Walz will also appear.
Whitaker joined the Democratic ticket on the campaign trail this week to gain insight into their platform’s priorities and values, and what the candidates believe voters should know.
Why Trump pulled out of the “60 Minutes” interview
Leading up to the candidate hour, Trump, through campaign spokespeople, was the first candidate to accept the “60 Minutes” request to be interviewed for the special, according to CBS News. It had been agreed that both candidates would receive equal time during the broadcast.
Trump last sat down with 60 Minutes in 2020. He walked out during the interview with Lesley Stahl. Trump referenced the incident on Tuesday night at a Milwaukee press conference when asked about his decision not to participate in the Oct. 7 “60 Minutes” election special.
“Well, right now, I went to – they came to me and would like me to do an interview, but first I want to get an apology, because the last time I did an interview with them, if you remember, they challenged me on the computer,” Trump said. “They said the ‘laptop from hell’ was from Russia, and I said it wasn’t from Russia. It was from Hunter, and I never got an apology, so I’m sort of waiting. I’d love to do ’60 Minutes.’ I do everything.”
The Republican nominee for president emphasized that he felt he was owed an apology from “60 Minutes.”
“Let’s see if they do it. I wouldn’t mind doing 60,” Trump continued. “I’ve done ’60 Minutes’ a lot.”
In a statement on Tuesday, Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung said that Trump’s team had not agreed to an interview.
“Fake News,” Cheung said in a post on X. “60 Minutes begged for an interview, even after they were caught lying about Hunter Biden’s laptop back in 2020. There were initial discussions, but nothing was ever scheduled or locked in. They also insisted on doing live fact checking, which is unprecedented.”
Previous Trump, Harris appearances on 60 Minutes
Trump previously sat down with “60 Minutes'” Mike Wallace in 1985, Pelley in 2015 and Lesley Stahl twice in 2016, first in July of that year and then again in November of 2016. He also spoke with Stahl again in 2018 and 2020.
Harris previously sat down with Whitaker last year. She also was interviewed by Norah O’Donnell, “CBS Evening News” anchor and “60 Minutes” contributing correspondent, in 2020.
