VOA教育报道2022--拜登政府将取消科林斯学院前学生的债务

US Cancels Debt for 560,000 Corinthian Colleges Students

The U.S. Department of Education announced Wednesday that it will cancel the federal student loans of hundreds of thousands of people.

Those people borrowed money to attend Corinthian Colleges, a for-profit group of schools that was judged to have carried out fraud.

Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona announced the move to cancel or "discharge" the loans. His message was for students who went to schools run by Corinthian Colleges between 1995 and 2015 and who still owe money.

"Every student deceived, defrauded¹ and driven into debt ... can rest assured that the Biden-Harris administration has their back," he said.

Corinthian's for-profit schools were not like traditional American universities. Most American universities are known as not-for-profit schools. That means they use money paid by students to cover their costs but they do not operate to make a profit like a business does.

There are hundreds of thousands of students who paid to go to the schools run by Corinthian, which failed financially in 2015. They decided² to attend the schools based on false claims of success. The students borrowed money from financial aid programs run by the U.S. government.

Cardona said the company "exploited" students and "misled" them. He said they borrowed more and more money to pay for classes with the promise that they would find better jobs at the end of their studies.

There are a total of 560,000 students who are said to owe a total of $5.8 billion. Some of them already submitted documents asking the federal government to cancel their student debt, but the program was not well known. The Department of Education will discharge the student debt without any action by the borrower and will extend it to additional borrowers.

However, students who finished paying their loans will not receive anything.

‘They never stopped fighting'

The problems with Corinthian go back to the administration of former President Barack Obama. His administration worked with the California attorney general at the time, current Vice³ President Kamala Harris.

Government officials investigated the education business. They found that Corinthian Colleges was falsely telling students about graduates who had good jobs. Instead, those students were working at food stores and restaurants.

The government investigators⁴ found that the colleges run by Corinthian, with names like Everest, WyoTech and Heald, promised good results. They also pressured students to spend more money. The schools falsely said other colleges would accept educational credits from the Corinthian schools.

After several investigations⁵, the Obama administration started a program for the students to get their loans canceled.

When he was running for president, President Joe Biden said he supported canceling up to $10,000 for people who stilled owed money for student loans. The administration has said it is considering ways Biden can do that through a presidential action instead of through Congress.

Including his announcement, Cardona said his department had so far approved $25 billion in loan discharges for a total of 1.3 million borrowers.

Eileen Connor is director of the Project on Predatory Student Lending. She called the action a big "student victory."

She praised the student borrowers saying, "They never stopped fighting."

Libby DeBlasio Webster is a lawyer for another organization called Student Defense⁶. She called it a "fresh start" for the Corinthian college students. However, she noted⁷ that students from other for-profit colleges still need help.

Nathan Hornes is a former student at a school run by Corinthian. He called the Everest Institute he attended in Los Angeles "a joke of a school."

Hornes said he once played a game in class in place of taking an examination. His debt was canceled in 2017 through one of the earlier programs. But he said his sister is one of the students who will be helped by the new action by the Department of Education.

In a statement, he called the news "a relief."

A group that represents for-profit colleges said students who paid to go to schools that made false claims deserve their money back. But it notes that not all are like Corinthian Colleges.

Jason Altmire is head of a trade group called Career Education Colleges and Universities. He said the Department of Education should not punish schools that "provided opportunities for millions of students," because of the actions of one group.

Words in This Story

fraud – n. the crime of using dishonest methods to take something valuable (such as money) from another person

deceive– v. to make someone believe something that is not true

assured –adj. to be sure that something will happen

exploit– v. to treat someone in a way that unfairly helps you, not them

relief- n. the removal of something that is difficult or painful

1 defrauded   

v.诈取，骗取( defraud的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He defrauded his employers of thousands of dollars. 他诈取了他的雇主一大笔钱。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He defrauded them of their money. 他骗走了他们的钱。 来自辞典例句

2 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

3 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

4 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 investigations   

（正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究

参考例句：

• His investigations were intensive and thorough but revealed nothing. 他进行了深入彻底的调查，但没有发现什么。
• He often sent them out to make investigations. 他常常派他们出去作调查。

6 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

7 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。