President Joe Biden’s administration on Wednesday announced that it is dedicating $72 million to support more than 2,300 student borrowers who applied for relief from loans to pay for degrees at Ashford University, a former for-profit online college in San Diego that was found to have cheated attendees.
The ex-students in question will be contacted by the Education Department next month to confirm that their applications have been approved.
The decision follows an Education Department review of evidence brought forward by the California Department of Justice after it won a lawsuit against Ashford and parent company Zovio last year.
“Defendants created a high-pressure admissions department whose north star was enrollment numbers,” a court said in its March 3, 2022, ruling.
The court also ordered Ashford and Zovio to pay $22.3 million in a civil penalty, which has been appealed.
“Based upon evidence presented in that lawsuit, which covered the period from March 1, 2009, through…