Dive Brief:

• Students at 91 former Everest and WyoTech campuses, part of the Corinthian Colleges empire, now have a clear path to loan forgiveness, thanks to new action by the U.S. Department of Education.
• The Chronicle of Higher Education reports the announcement represents the largest swath of students to be made eligible for the benefit, though the department did not say how many individual students are in the group.
• So far the Department of Education has forgiven $130 million in student loans taken out by 8,800 former Corinthian students who were stranded when the massive for-profit college chain went bankrupt.

Dive Insight:

The Education Department has been caught in the middle with interests as a lender as well as a protector of students and overseer of colleges. When Corinthian Colleges went out of business, the government and, by extension, taxpayers were at risk of footing $3.5 billion in collective federal student loan debt for its students. Friday’s announcement about the debt relief plan is more evidence the government will shoulder the burden for defrauded students in the absence of Corinthian’s ability to pay up.

Zenith Education Group, which took over dozens of campuses from Corinthians before it went bankrupt, announced last week it would consolidate eight and close two, putting more than 600 employees out of work. Inside Higher Ed reports the company lost $100 million last year and already eliminated more than half of its workforce before the latest cuts.