This action is for everyone who attended a for-profit school who currently lives in Michigan (so even if you used to live somewhere else or the for-profit school was located somewhere else, if you now live in MI this is for you).
As you probably already know, the Department of Education has been letting individual defense to repayment (DTR) applications sit on a shelf and gather dust. Many people have been waiting years for a decision on their individual application. The Department of Education’s strategy here seems to be to wait it out. They want to ignore these DTRs long enough for them to have time to rewrite the rules. Once they have rewritten the rules, they will be able to deny many more people the debt relief they deserve. At the moment we have no mechanism to force the Department of Education to actually process and make a decision on an individual DTR.
BUT, the good news is that there is another option here. The Attorney General can file a group discharge application which would cover all students who attended for-profits like Corinthian, ITT Tech, AI and other schools. Unlike an individual DTR, we do have a way to force them to respond to these group wide DTRs. Two other states have already done this, Massecuttes and Illinois. In a recent court case the judge ruled that the Department of Education cannot ignore these group DTRs in the same way that they are ignoring individual DTRs.
So what we want to do is organize everyone in Michigan who has attended one of these schools to email the Attorney General’s office and tell them to file a group wide DTR. We’ve created a template of for you to follow below.
After you add your story send it to the Michigan Attorney General here: miag@michigan.gov
BCC thomas@debtcollective.org so that we can keep track of how many people have sent letters.
The main person we need to work with in the MI AG office is named David Knezek, he is in charge of legislative affairs.
Office of the Attorney General
Attn: David Knezek
G. Mennen Williams Building
525 W. Ottawa Street
P.O. Box 30212
Lansing, MI 48909[YOUR NAME]
[YOUR ADDRESS/EMAIL/PHONE]RE: Group Discharge of Fraudulent Federal Student Loans
Dear Attorney General Nessel and David Knezek:
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 Michigan who have been defrauded by a predatory for-profit school. Other states Attorneys General like Massachusetts and Illinois have already taken this step.
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. Given the potential harm facing all former for-profit borrowers and DeVos’s longstanding hostility towards student debtors, I believe a new approach is needed.
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 [NAME OF SCHOOL] in [CITY] from [YEARS ATTENDED]. I am writing to tell you my story of being preyed on and scammed by my school.
[TELL YOUR STORY HERE.]
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 Michigan, 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,
[YOUR NAME]
