These students borrowed $35K plus for an unaccredited program that closed. Years later, their debts remain
Administrators at the now-closed
The graduates could work as uncredentialed techs for a year and then take their board tests. But the women -- and they were all women in the day and night classes -- asked how could they get ultrasound jobs in the first place without passing their boards to prove they had skills?
Reichardt, who borrowed
She even subcontracted for Peco, switching out electric and gas meters. "I did both of them together," Reichardt said. "I'd be trying to not get electrocuted during the day and not getting punched in the face at night."
Another student,
It wasn't until late in her education, she recalled, that she learned an awful truth about the school. The broader
"They said I would make
The two
The problem in
Students in for-profit schools owe the
The Obama administration sought to make it easier for the government to forgive loans for students in for-profit schools who believed they were deceived. But the Trump administration has rolled back those programs, experts say.
When asked last month at a
On Friday, Education press secretary
Over the last several months, Hill said in a statement, the borrowers have filed about 2,000 new applications a week for relief. "Pending litigation has slowed down the Department's ability to process applications and provide relief to additional borrowers," she said.
Government data show that one-third of students who have defaulted on federal student loans attended for-profit schools, while they represented only about one-tenth of enrollment in 2017.
Students at for-profit schools are "terribly over-debted for what they got out of the programs," said
Howarth's research, based on government data disclosed after Sanford Brown Trevose closed, showed that students' earnings after for-profit ultrasound programs failed to measure up -- with 22 of 23 of them scoring poorly based on earnings to student debt.
With the federal government doing very little to help students at for-profit schools, state attorneys general have waded in to help but have little to show for it.
This January,
Miller announced that
But the settlement covered only private loans. For-profit schools generally operate under the 90/10 rule: 90 percent federal loans and 10 percent private loans. That means that only 10 percent would be forgiven if students had private loans for Sanford Brown in the first place. Most borrowers won't be helped.
"This was rough justice and it was what we could get," explained
The Sanford Brown Institute Trevose campus in 2010 had the seal of approval from a major accrediting agency -- which allowed the
But the
Ultrasound there was accredited only between
The entire campus closed in
The normal route after graduating from an accredited ultrasound program was to take board tests immediately. But graduates from an unaccredited school had to work for a year as a paid ultrasound tech to become eligible for the tests.
"We were basically set up for failure," said Reichardt, who lives in
Three years ago, Reichardt's sister helped her find a job with a mobile ultrasound company. She did not need board certification for it. She contacted a former Sanford Brown instructor to refresh her skills. She now works at a doctor's office in
Classmate
Collins, 35, of
Her story began in 2008 when she was a waitress at the 99 Restaurant in
She said the Sanford Brown recruiter told her that the path to the ultrasound program was through a "medical assistants" course.
As graduation loomed in 2010, Collins learned like the other students that Sanford Brown Trevose was not accredited so she would have to work a year before taking her boards. "There was no help at all with resumès. My sister Lynn ended up helping me."
After graduation, Collins waitressed again while taking a second job with the
Her debt remains.
Her father told her about the
"She was like, 'Oh, hon, it's unfortunately only for students that have private loans and not if you have a federal loan. The only people that can forgive a federal loan is the
In January, Collins filed with the
Collins checked her balance the other day. She still owes
___
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