“Students were failed": Trump admin cancels 1,500 student loans

The Department of Education will cancel federal loans for about 1,500 defrauded students at two shuttered art institutions, reports the New York Times.

Why it matters: This represents a "rare victory" from Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, who has limited relief programs for students who claim they've been deceived by the "career-school chain," writes the Times.

Yes, but: Some borrowers will still owe money on the federal loans they took out before Jan. 20, the department wrote in an email sent Friday.

Context: Students at the Art Institute of Colorado and the Illinois Institute of Art sued the Education Department in October to have their loans cleared, per the Times.

• The schools' closures were part of an ongoing saga involving Dream Center Education Holdings — which owned several schools part of the Art Institutes, South University and Argosy University brands, according to the Times.
• The Dream Center, owned by a Christian nonprofit, purchased the for-profit schools in 2017, and suddenly closed them a year later with millions of dollars in federal financial aid still missing, per the Times.

Go deeper:

• A growing debt burden on low- and middle-income Americans
• Special report: Higher education's existential crisis
• Paying for college with your future salary