Education Department Approves dollar238 Million Group Discharge for 28,000 Marinello Schools of Beauty Borrowers Based on Borrow
Categories: US Education News
Today, the Department of Education announced it will deliver relief to tens of thousands of borrowers harmed by pervasive and widespread misconduct at Marinello Schools of Beauty. Borrowers who enrolled in the schools from 2009 through its closure in February 2016 will receive loan discharges based on borrower defense findings. These 28,000 borrowers will receive loan discharges totaling approximately $238 million. This group discharge will provide relief to borrowers who enrolled at Marinello during this period, including those who have not yet applied for a borrower defense discharge. “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,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. “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.” To date, the Department had approved approximately 300 borrower defense claims at Marinello under findings reached last July that Marinello made widespread, substantial misrepresentations about the instruction that would be offered at its campuses across the country. The Department found that the schools failed to train students in key elements of a cosmetology program, such as how to cut hair. It also found that Marinello left students without instructors for weeks or months at a time as part of a pattern of failing to provide the education it promised.The Department will soon begin notifying students who attended Marinello of their approvals for discharge, with discharges following in the months after. Borrowers will not have to take any additional actions to receive their discharges.