Dear Attorney General Jim Hood:
I am a constituent and a former student of a predatory for-profit college. I am writing to ask you to file what is known as a group discharge application under the 2016 regulations of the Borrower Defense to Repayment law. This would help people like me and many others in Mississippi who have been defrauded by a predatory for-profit school. Other states Attorneys General like Massachusetts and Illinois have already taken this step.
First, I recognize that your office has already been a leader on this issue. Along with Attorneys General in 19 other states, your office has pressured the Department to follow the 2016 regulations and to do right by people in my situation. For that effort, I and thousands of others thank you. I have already filed an individual Borrower Defense to Repayment, but the Department of Education so far has refused to make a decision on this claim. Their strategy seems to be to ignore these claims long enough until they can rewrite the rules in 2020 and then deny these claims. Building on the good work your office has already done, we now need to act to make the most of the 2016 regulations while they are enforced.
Unlike the individual borrower defense applications, a federal judge in Williams v. DeVos ruled that the Department of Education cannot ignore a group discharge application when filed by a state Attorney General. This is why even though I have already filed an individual claim, a group discharge application is needed.
I attended Everest University in Orlando, FL from 2009 to 2013. I am writing to tell you my story of being preyed on and scammed by my school.
I attended Everest University Online South in Orlando, FL years of 2009 to 2013 studying Computer Information System-Web Design. When I first talk to them they say I will be placed at job in my field and I had to pay $60 just to get in. He told me I will get a job within a couple of months after I graduated. This never happened because they didn’t try to place me anywhere. They told it wasn’t going to cost me that much to attend but cost me over $50.000 with no job. But before I get graduate I had to pay an over $100 in order to receive the useless diploma. Why should I have to pay exact money in order to receive this useless diploma when they got all this money from the loans. I am in debt over $65,000 now with no job in the field I went to school for and I was told that the grants wasn’t enough to cover me while I was in school and now I cant get a grant because they have use them up. I still haven’t got a job in this field yet because most people will not except this degree.
I am now organizing with other defrauded borrowers as part of the Debt Collective, a membership organization for people in debt. I am writing in the hope that you will take action to ensure that my federal student loans, as well as the loans of every person in our state who was scammed by a for-profit school, are canceled. For the last two years, Betsy DeVos has refused to cancel predatory loans even though the law requires that she do so. As the top law enforcement officer in Mississippi, I am confident that you will do all you can to help by filing a group discharge application.
I look forward to hearing from you and learning more about how I and other members of the Debt Collective can support you in advancing the cause for debt relief.
Regards,
Celesta Steward
11594 Old Hwy 61 N Apt 6D
Robinsonville, MS 38664
celestaclarence@yahoo.com
662-570-5388
3 Likes
You likely have to change some of the text, because this is going to a republican Attorney General. The whole part about the 19 attorneys general being a leader in fighting the Department of Education is referring to democratic attorneys general.
We’re going to get a Republican template letter going along with directions to contact your senators soon.
3 Likes