Some 28,000 student loan borrowers who attended the Marinello Schools of Beauty will see financial relief as the Department of Education makes good on student loan promises, discharging millions of dollars worth of debt after it found misconduct within the for-profit school.
The $238 million worth of student loans will apply to students who attended the schools from 2009 through the time it abruptly closed in February 2016. Students will benefit from this situation even if they have not yet applied for borrower defense discharge, the Department of Education said.
“Marinello preyed on students who dreamed of careers in the beauty industry, misled them about the quality of their programs, and left them buried in unaffordable debt they could not repay,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a news release. “Today’s announcement will streamline access to debt relief for thousands of borrowers caught up in Marinello’s lies. At the Department of Education, we will continue to strengthen oversight and enforcement for colleges and career schools that engaged in misconduct and uphold the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to helping students who have been harmed.”
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The relief is in line with promises from the Biden-Harris Administration to solve the student loan debt crisis in the U.S., though President Joe Biden said the very same day that he is “not considering $50,000 in debt reduction” but rather some form of student loan debt relief for all.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York is among those who have been pushing the president to cancel $50,000 or more per borrower.
Thursday’s action with Marinello schools bring the total amount of relief to $2.1 billion for 132,000 borrowers, the department said.
Marinello had been under scrutiny from the Department of Education that found the program was deceptive, and misrepresented its teachings.
The Department found that the schools failed to train students in key elements of a cosmetology program, such as how to cut hair.
Department of Education
The Department also said the program would sometimes leave students without instructors for weeks or months at a time.
When it was time for students to take and pass state licensing tests, they found it difficult based on the instruction that Marinello provided, the Department said.
Class action lawsuits were filed in Nevada and California as well, alleging the program used students as a “source of unpaid labor.”
