Students ‘cheated’ by Art Institutes will have their loans forgiven, Biden says [Video]

The Biden administration is canceling $6.1 billion in student loan debt for borrowers who attended the Art Institutes, which closed its campuses last fall amid allegations of fraud.

“This institution falsified data, knowingly misled students, and cheated borrowers into taking on mountains of debt without leading to promising career prospects at the end of their studies,” President Joe Biden said in a statement Wednesday.

The cancellation will affect 317,000 borrowers who attended any of the Art Institute campuses between Jan. 1, 2004, and Oct. 16, 2017.

The U.S. Department of Education said an investigation into the for-profit chain of schools and its parent company, Education Management Corporation, found they misled students about the success of its graduates, postgrad salaries and career services.

Based on evidence provided to the department by attorneys general offices of Iowa, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, which brought lawsuits against the Art Institutes, the schools advertised an 82% postgraduate employment rate when in …