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Detroit Free Press
April 20, 2019

An unpaid $1,250 student loan can become thousands more and land you in federal court
By David Jesse


Much of the defaulted loan debt — locally and nationally — is owed by students who attended small private schools specializing in training people to be hairstylists, auto mechanics and other blue-collar jobs, according to a Free Press analysis. Many of these debtors owe more in interest than they do in principal on the loans, which can stretch back to the 1970s. The program hit a peak in 2011, when almost 4,500 cases were filed across the nation, according to statistics gathered by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, based at Syracuse University. About 500 cases were filed last year across the nation. The Eastern District of Michigan, headquartered in Detroit, was the third highest in 2018, with 37 cases filed. Beating it out were the Central District of California and the Southern District of Florida. The Eastern District of Michigan had the second-highest rate of suits per capita, trailing on the Southern District of Florida and four times the national rate.


Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, Syracuse University
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