A report by the National Student Legal Defense Network highlights how the Department of Education seeks to collect debt from student borrowers while appearing to not put the same energy into collecting debt from hundreds of institutions.
Nearly 1,300 institutions of higher education owe around $1.2 billion in debt to the Department of Education. Even so, the department more aggressively pursues debt held by student loan borrowers, according to a recent report by the National Student Legal Defense Network. The findings align with what experts have experienced in navigating the student loan system, but others argue that the report lacks a complete picture of the department’s collection efforts.
Student Defense filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the department in February for a complete listing of all institutions with any financial liability or unpaid obligation that remains unpaid, regardless of whether they’re still participating in Title IV programs. They also requested the amount of those liabilities and the date they were assessed.
About $574 million of the outstanding liabilities is from 2018 or earlier, with some debt listed as more than 10 years old. Around $218 million has presumably been lost due to a five-year statute of limitations on the department’s authority to collect debts, according to the report.