Students Of Defunct Anthem College Could Get Debt Relief

ST. LOUIS PARK, Minn. (WCCO) -- Anthem College, formerly called High Tech Institute, would enroll hundreds of students each year.

But after the for-profit, private school came under investigation by the U.S. Senate, it closed up shop in 2014 leaving students with lots of debt and little to show for it.

When the doors were locked at its St. Louis Park campus, more than a faded sign was left behind. Many former students soon discovered worthless degrees and mountains of debt.

"It was probably about $25,000," Amber Mandich said.

Mandich, a single parent, is one of those students. She pursued a two-year degree as an x-ray technician at Anthem College in 2012. But when she went to pursue her bachelor's degree, she found out the schooling she already had was nearly worthless.

"A lot of the schools I looked into to get my bachelor's degree won't take any of the credits," she said.

Just as Mandich was graduating, the U.S. Senate cited an internal school memo. It claims to have tried to enroll students with little support system, or who were disadvantaged and with low self-esteem.

"The school misrepresented many things to them," Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson said.

Swanson says Anthem's graduates weren't qualified to be radiological technologists - or even work in hospitals.

"The school offered an x-ray operator degree, but not the normal degree you have to become an x-ray operator in a hospital," Swanson said. "Students didn't know that and thought it was a degree that would lead to gainful employment."

Because Anthem went bankrupt the state can't sue for restitution. So Swanson hopes to use a federal law to ease the debt burden.

"For 20 years federal law has allowed this process, where in this exact kind of case where a school has misled students and caused them to take out loans through fraud, their loans may be forgiven," Swanson said.