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Arlington, VA – Today, Judge William Alsup in the Northern District of California held a final approval hearing on the proposed class settlement in Sweet v. Cardona, a long-running case brought by former students against the U.S. Department of Education over delays in the processing of borrower defense to repayment applications. Under the settlement, the Department has agreed to forgive and/or repay an estimated $6 billion in student loan debt including “automatic” relief for students who attended certain proprietary schools listed in an exhibit to the settlement. Four of the listed schools have intervened and opposed final approval, arguing that the settlement unfairly circumvents their procedural rights and harms their reputations without due process and that the settlement exceeds the Department’s legal authority to compromise the plaintiff’s claims, which were based solely on procedural delay. After over 90 minutes of oral presentations from counsel, the Court stated it needs more time to "study" the case and would issue a written decision within the next week. “The four intervenor schools made a compelling case today that the Sweet settlement represents an unlawful overreach by the U.S. Department of Education and unfairly maligns more than 150 institutions based on mere allegations without any opportunity to respond,” said CECU’s President and CEO, Dr. Jason Altmire. “We are glad to see that Judge Alsup is taking a deliberate approach to these serious issues and has not simply rubber-stamped the settlement. We hope that this will lead to a resolution of the case that is fair for all of the parties involved.” ### About Career Education Colleges and Universities
Career Education Colleges and Universities (CECU) is the national association serving the proprietary higher education sector. Please direct media inquiries to Jenny Faubert, Vice President of Communications, at Jenny.Faubert@career.org. Comments are closed.
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