Former Argosy University students pray for debt relief as Biden departs

With just days left in President Biden’s time in office, students who racked up thousands of dollars in debt at the now-shuttered Argosy University are losing hope that they will ever get relief from their hefty student loan balances.

The former Argosy students are among tens of thousands of people in Illinois and across the country who were defrauded by predatory colleges and hoped for relief from the Biden administration.

“The only way my loans will ever get paid off is if I either die or win the lottery, which I don't play,” said Valerie Scott, who owes $389,000 for a graduate degree she completed at Argosy, a for-profit college, more than a decade ago. “Nothing is mine, and I can't call anything mine. Because every penny I've ever made has gone towards my loans.”

Argosy, which offered master’s and doctoral degrees in psychology, operated more than 20 campuses across the country, including locations in suburban Schaumburg and downtown Chicago. It abruptly shut down in 2019 after the U.S. Department of Education cut off its federal loans and grants, the company’s main source of revenue, because the school had misused funds meant for students. Years earlier, the downtown Argosy campus faced controversy over plagiarism charges levied by a student against one of its professors.

“We were lied to about the cost of attending the program,” Scott said. “We were lied to about job prospects following graduation from the program. We were lied to about how the program would support us through the process of getting our education — and following graduation [in the form of] career services.”

The federal program that could grant debt cancellation to students like Scott, known as borrowers defense to repayment, is expected to be gutted under President-elect Donald Trump. During Trump’s first presidency, processing of applications ground nearly to a halt, and more than 130,000 applications were denied.

In an investigation published last July, WBEZ found that for-profit colleges in Illinois disproportionately enroll marginalized students, particularly Black women, first-generation and low-income students, by promising a flexible path to a better future. Then, too often, these students are left with mountains of debt in low-wage jobs.

In early December, Scott spoke alongside other former Argosy students at a press conference held by Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois and Edward Markey of Massachusetts, calling on the U.S. Department of Education to promptly discharge federal loans for students misled by Argosy and other predatory colleges.

Dozens of other Democratic lawmakers, including Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Maxine Waters of California, signed onto a letter urging Department officials to process pending applications to the borrowers defense program. To apply for the program, students must submit evidence they were lied to and harmed by their colleges. The politicians estimate that 400,000 borrowers are waiting on their applications to be processed.

“Under the previous Trump Administration, borrowers’ applications were allowed to languish for years,” the lawmakers wrote. “It is imperative that the Department provide immediate relief to borrowers. Borrowers who attended fraudulent schools and have struggled with debt for years, or even decades, cannot afford to wait any longer.”

In a response sent two weeks later, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona wrote, “While the previous Administration left many of these claims lingering for years, the Biden-Harris Administration has approved more than $28.7 billion in loan discharges for more than 1.6 million borrowers who were defrauded by their schools, saw their institutions precipitously close, or are covered by related court settlements.”

Last May, Biden canceled $6.1 billion in federal debt for 317,000 students who attended The Art Institutes, a chain of for-profit colleges with campuses across the country. Its parent company, Education Management Corporation, also owned Argosy and was accused of lying to students.

“The U.S. Department of Education (Department) found that The Art Institutes and its parent company, Education Management Corporation (EDMC), made pervasive and substantial misrepresentations to prospective students about postgraduation employment rates, salaries, and career services,” officials said in a statement on May 1, 2024.

It's unclear why Argosy students were not included in the group discharge. Education Department officials refrained from commenting on the decision.

Persis Yu, deputy executive director for the Student Borrower Protection Center, said the issue is time.

“There are so many more students that we know should be getting this relief, but for the fact that time and the ability and administrative burden of whatever bureaucracy is slowing it down,” Yu said. “We have seen hundreds of thousands — I mean, really, millions more students get relief than had ever gotten relief before, under this administration. Yet it is not enough.”

Those students who are entitled to but still have not been approved for cancellation are still on the hook for their debt, Yu said, which can have dire consequences.

“A lot of these students are in default. That makes them extremely vulnerable,” Yu said. “It means that their wages can be taken. It means that their tax refunds, including the earned income tax credit, can be taken. If they're older, they can have a portion of their social security retirement seized or their social security disability payment seized.”

Laura Strong, who attended Argosy University and owes $265,000 in student loans, feels that vulnerability when she thinks about covering her monthly expenses. She also feels a sense of shame.

“None of my family went to grad school. They didn't know what to look for,” said Strong, who started her doctorate in psychology at Argosy’s Schaumburg campus when she was 22.

She said her tuition went up every semester, and at one point, she was working eight part-time jobs to help pay it.

“It's that awful sense that you were taken advantage of, and it's embarrassing,” Strong said. “You're blamed for your debt and you're blamed for being taken advantage of when the system was rigged against us.”

Lisa Kurian Philip covers higher education for WBEZ, in partnership with Open Campus. Follow her on Twitter @LAPhilip.