Student loan safety net needs mending: How simplifying can help

This fall, Suzette Kinslow, a mother of three from Indiana, got a letter that would change her life: The federal government, it said, was wiping out $50,000 in debt she’d taken on a decade earlier for a health information technology degree at ITT Technical Institute because of “misrepresentations” by the now-defunct for-profit college chain.

For Ms. Kinslow, who has been unable to find work in the field, the news was both a relief and a vindication. For years, she’d been saying that the school misled her about her job prospects and failed to prepare her for the state certification exam.

But Joseph White, a tech support specialist in Missouri who has made similar claims against the company, is still waiting for relief from the $120,000 he owes for two ITT degrees.