The federal government’s recent crackdown on for-profit “career colleges” has given hope to many students and graduates who believe they were duped by certain of these schools on the basis of untrue graduate career placement records, predatory financial and student recruiting practices, and deceptive marketing. In a stunning move back in June 2015, the U.S. Department of Education fully canceled the federal student loan debt of thousands of students of various of the Corinthian Colleges, a for-profit education company that had numerous “career colleges” in its stable of subsidiary schools, including Everest, Heald, and WyoTech.

Another step in the direction of realizing student debt relief has been made by a non-profit debt relief activist group called Debt Collective. Debt Collective has created an electronic form called “Defense to Repayment,” which “will help you dispute your federal student loan debt from your school.” The form, when completed, will be submitted directly to the Department of Education.

Direct Collective claims that it is likely any Direct loans…that is, loan money applied for and received by you directly from the federal government…will at least be put in administrative forbearance as the result of such a filing, while the feds figure out how this whole mess will ultimately be settled. You can reach the Direct Collective homepage, where the “Defense to Repayment” application portal can be found, by Clicking Here.

You should be advised that Debt Collective’s “Defense to Repayment” application is not a form officially authorized by the Department of Education. Further, in order to complete the form, you need to set aside about 30 minutes and be willing to divulge personal, sensitive information, like your Social Security number.

 By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large