Students from the now-defunct Argosy University in Eagan are a step closer to having some of their debts forgiven.
With a unanimous vote, the Minnesota Senate approved a bill that would help students with some of their most recent debt from the school. The chain closed suddenly in March.
The legislation has already cleared the House and now heads to Gov. Tim Walz who is expected to sign it.
The chain of 16 schools in 11 states had been struggling financially. In February, the U.S. Department of Education cut off the school’s access to federally backed student loans after it learned the chain used $13 million owed to students to cover payroll.
Argosy closed weeks later after it was unable to find a buyer. In Eagan, about 1,000 students were affected.
WHAT DOES THE BILL DO?
The bills moving through the legislature would allow students who were going to get state aid through the university to receive that assistance directly. They also won’t be liable for courses they paid for but were unable to complete because of the school’s closure.
“The goal of this legislation is to protect students negatively affected by this closure at no fault of their own,” said state Sen. Paul Anderson, R-Plymouth, chair of the Senate higher education committee.
The bill also requires the state Department of Higher Education to report to lawmakers ways to avoid sudden school closures in the future.
FOR-PROFIT SCHOOLS STRUGGLE
Argosy is far from the only for-profit school in Minnesota to suddenly close in recent years. The McNally Smith College of Music closed without warning in December 2017.
Campuses of Globe University and the Minnesota School of Business closed after a 2016 court ruling that the schools had defrauded students enrolled in the criminal justice programs by leading them to believe the degrees would advance their career aspirations. The Woodbury-based chain also had lost access to the federal loan program.
Minneapolis-based Zenith Education Group purchased 56 school campuses from the defunct Corinthian Colleges chain in 2015. The nonprofit now operates just three schools, according to its website.
Under President Barack Obama’s administration, the U.S. Department of Education sought to toughen oversight of for-profit schools to protect students and make sure the degrees they received would earn them enough money to repay the loans they took out for school.
President Donald Trump’s Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has backed away from some of the efforts to more closely regulate the career school sector.