Student Loans: Wheres the Relief?

-CNBC- Shaun Joyce used to sit at his desk at The Art Institute of Charlotte in North Carolina on edge. Thats because a staff member could burst into his classroom at any moment and lead him on the walk of death. That was when students would be summoned to the for-profit schools financial aid office and told theyd run out of loans Joyce said. Then the student would be informed that he or she needed to borrow more money immediately or else leave the school. You never knew if you were coming back Joyce now 29 said. On his way to pursuing his bachelors degree in web design and interactive media at the Art Institute a former unit of Education Management Corp. which was partially owned by Goldman Sachs at the time Joyce received such an ultimatum. At one point there were some 50 Art Institute campuses in operation. Scared the school would not allow him to complete his degree he signed up for another loan. But realizing how unaffordable the school was becoming he also decided to leave the program after two years instead of the four years hed planned on. The tab for his two-year associates degree is nearly $90000. I switched down to an associates degree. Why is it this expensive? he recalled telling the Art Institute staff at the time. Im paying more than what was quoted to me for a bachelors degree. To make matters worse Joyce has been unable to find a job in his field to repay that huge debt. During enrollment Joyce claims that Art Institute employees had promised him theyd find him work related to his studies yet when he reached out to the schools career services department a woman just sent him back job links on Craigslist. This school screwed me over Joyce said. Multiple requests for an interview with Education Management Corp. went unanswered. The companys website is now down and last month it filed for bankruptcy. There is no current representative of the debtors available to comment said Jay Jaffe one of the companys bankruptcy lawyers. Borrowers are stuck waiting Joyce is now arguing to the Department of Education that it should stop collecting on his federal loans because the school he borrowed them for misled him and engaged in other misconduct. So are some 165000 other former students mainly from for-profit schools across the country. However these borrowers find themselves in limbo as the Trump administration postpones an Obama-era regulation aimed at canceling the debt of those with troubled degrees.