CollegeAmerica, owned by the Center for Excellence in Higher Education, Inc., offered various degrees in business, computer technology, and medical assisting, but closed its doors in 2021.
Thousands of former students from a private career school in Colorado will have their federal student loans forgiven after the school lost its accreditation and was found to have provided misleading information about job placement and earnings
The Colorado Attorney General, Phil Weiser, revealed that approximately 7,400 former students who attended the three private career school CollegeAmerica locations in Colorado between January 2006 and July 2020 will benefit from the loan forgiveness. Investigations found that the private career school had overstated potential salaries by up to double what graduates could realistically earn, and the actual job placement rate was only around 40% despite advertising 70%.
The U.S. Department of Education estimated that the federal student loan relief would amount to $130 million. However, this relief will not apply to nonfederal loans and is separate from President Joe Biden’s $400 billion student loan forgiveness plan, which was halted by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June.
Federal Student Aid Chief Richard Cordray emphasized that former students need not take any action to have their loans forgiven
The Department of Education corroborated the findings from a decade-long investigation by the Colorado attorney general’s office, which revealed the misleading practices of the private career school.
In 2021, Center for Excellence in Higher Education, Inc., schools, including CollegeAmerica, lost their accreditation and desisted from enrolling new scholars in private career schools. The accreditation was crucial for these private career schools to receive federal funds. The Center for Excellence in Higher Education, Inc., filed a lawsuit against the Department of Education, stating that opponents of federal funding for for-profit private career schools unfairly associate them with predatory practices.
The Center for Excellence in Higher Education, Inc., had several branches, and all of them are now closed. Total tuition costs at CollegeAmerica varied from around $40,000 for an associate degree to $75,000 for a bachelor’s degree.