It turns out lots of people have ideas about student debt forgiveness.

Inside Higher Ed reports.

Staking Out Sides on Student Debt Discharge

The U.S. Department of Education has received more than 10,000 comments in response to a proposed rule for federal loan forgiveness for students whose colleges have defrauded them. The deadline for submitting comments was 11:59 p.m. Aug. 1.

The department released the new proposed regulations, known as defense to repayment, in June in response to the collapse of Corinthian Colleges. While they are drawing praise from consumer protection groups, a range of groups, including taxpayer advocates and historically black and other colleges, have raised alarms over wider repercussions of the rules. Several mainstream higher education advocacy groups are also weighing in with concerns over unintended consequences of the rules.

Among the main requirements of the proposed rules: colleges and universities must provide warnings to students about poor loan repayment rates and set aside money for loan forgiveness. Most critically, they lay out a path for the government to forgive students’ debt when they claim they were defrauded by their institution.
The department expects to release the final set of regulations on Nov. 1, said a spokeswoman, Kelly Leon. The new regulation could lead to the discharge of $42 billion over the coming decade, according to the department’s own estimates.

For-profit college groups have lined up in opposition to the rules, while many student advocates are saying they don’t go far enough. Those positions were expected, as for-profits were the main target of the rules and Democratic elected officials and consumer advocates have been the biggest champions of new regulations.