Their colleges closed, but the government refuses to erase their debts, lawsuit says
asserted
lawsuit → close → debts
Their colleges closed, but the government refuses to erase their debts, lawsuit says
asserted
lawsuit → close → debts
Kendrick Gaussoin remembers it all so clearly — the August day a decade ago when his dream of becoming a professional photographer suddenly collapsed.
asserted
dream → remember → photographer
He was driving to the Ventura, Calif., campus of Brooks Institute, the private, for-profit college where he'd been working on a bachelor's degree in photography.
asserted
he → drive → photography
When he pulled up, he was surprised to find classmates and friends milling outside.
asserted
classmates → pull → ?
The school's doors were chained.
asserted
doors → chain → ?
"It was very eerie," he remembers.
asserted
he → remember → ?
"Everyone was crying.
asserted
Everyone → cry → ?
Everyone felt like they'd lost everything."
asserted
they → feel → everything
Brooks had suddenly been shut down by its parent company, leaving Gaussoin and some of his classmates with enormous student loan debts and no clear path to a degree.
asserted
Brooks → shut → degree
"I was completely discouraged," Gaussoin remembers.
asserted
Gaussoin → discourage → ?
"I basically gave up, and I've spent the past nine years really just trying my best to move forward."
asserted
I → give → best
Today, though, Gaussoin is revisiting what happened to him at Brooks — and is trying to get his student loans erased.
asserted
loans → revisit → Brooks
For more than three decades, federal law has required the U.S. secretary of education to cancel the debts of qualified borrowers whose schools close suddenly, a process known as "closed school discharge."
asserted
schools → require → discharge
But a lawsuit filed Wednesday against the Department of Education claims the Trump administration is illegally refusing to fully follow all of the program's rules.
uncertain
administration → file → rules
The lawsuit was filed in federal court by Student Defense, a nonprofit borrower advocacy group, on behalf of Gaussoin and potentially thousands of other borrowers.
asserted
lawsuit → file → borrowers
The Education Department told NPR it stands by its implementation of the program.
asserted
it → tell → program
How closed school discharge works
asserted
discharge → close → ?
According to a review by the nonpartisan U.S. Government Accountability Office, between 2010 and 2020, more than 1,100 colleges closed, including Brooks, leaving 246,000 borrowers eligible for a closed school discharge.
uncertain
colleges → accord → discharge
To qualify for a traditional discharge, borrowers have to either 1) have been enrolled at the time of closure or 2) have left school no more than six months before the closure.
asserted
borrowers → qualify → closure
Gaussoin's school, Brooks Institute, closed in August 2016.
asserted
school → close → August
But in December 2015, he took an eight-month leave of absence to work as a photographer.
asserted
he → take → photographer
Because the school was closing as he returned, Gaussoin's leave put him beyond the program's standard look-back window.
asserted
leave → close → window
He had been away too long to have his loans discharged.
asserted
loans → have → ?
But nearly a decade later, in 2025, Gaussoin's luck appeared to change.
asserted
luck → appear → 2025
In the waning days of the Biden administration, the Education Department expanded the look-back window for borrowers who had attended several closed schools, including Brooks.
asserted
who → wan → Brooks
Under the change, any borrower who was enrolled as of May 6, 2015, would qualify for a loan discharge and refund of any past payments.
uncertain
who → enrol → payments
In an order dated Jan. 6, 2025, the department's then-undersecretary, James Kvaal, wrote that the administration was expanding the window of eligibility because the schools had been closed under "exceptional circumstances," justifying more leniency for borrowers.
asserted
schools → date → borrowers
Denials under Trump
Gaussoin learned about the Biden-era change over the summer.
asserted
Gaussoin → learn → summer
On Aug. 23, 2026, he applied for his closed school discharge, noting in his application that he now falls within the new, expanded look-back window.
asserted
he → apply → window
A week later, in a letter dated Aug. 31, the Trump administration denied his request for loan forgiveness.
asserted
administration → date → forgiveness
In the denial letter, Gaussoin was told he did not meet the traditional pre-Biden eligibility requirements.
asserted
he → tell → requirements
NPR asked the department why it appeared to be ignoring the Biden-era eligibility expansion, and Education Department spokesperson Ellen Keast responded with this statement:
"The Biden Administration was laser-focused on implementing unlawful policies to shift student loan debt onto the back of every single hardworking American taxpayer. Literally days before leaving office, the former Biden Under Secretary used the stroke of a (digital) pen to inappropriately expand the closed-school discharge period for certain institutions targeted by the previous Administration."
asserted
Secretary → ask → Administration
Viewing this authority as "unlawful" is new for a Trump Education Department.
asserted
Viewing → view → Department
In November 2019, during the first Trump administration, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos used the same authority, citing "exceptional circumstances," to expand the look-back window for borrowers who had attended the troubled Art Institute of Colorado and the Illinois Institute of Art.
asserted
who → use → Art
"Students were failed and deserve to be made whole," DeVos said at the time.
asserted
DeVos → fail → time
"By canceling these students' loans … as well as extending the closed school discharge period, we hope that these impacted students will now have the tools and resources they need to complete their education.
asserted
they → cancel → education
"Legally, the secretary has the authority to expand the window [of eligibility]," says Bonnie Latreille, a former top official in the office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) during the Biden administration.
asserted
Latreille → have → administration
If the Trump administration is now trying to quietly ignore or revoke that rule change, Latreille says, "then I think that raises legal flags."
asserted
that → try → flags
Latreille worked at FSA as the Education Department was transitioning between the Biden and Trump administrations.
asserted
Department → work → administrations
…and 29 more, not listed.
The Aporia
