Public colleges shock students by sending them to costly debt collection agencies

Richard Fishburn never imagined he’d one day be facing down debt collectors — all because he decided to return to college.

An Army veteran who had worked his whole life, Fishburn enrolled at Cleveland State University in Ohio in 2016. But in his third semester, when the back injury he sustained in the Army flared up, his advisers encouraged him to take time to heal so he wasn’t in excruciating pain sitting in lecture halls.

That decision proved costly. Although he withdrew from classes, Fishburn said he still received a bill for tuition without any explanation as to why he still owed money. When he tried to reenroll, he was told he needed to pay in full. Cleveland State had added $600 in collection and late fees and eventually, as required by state law, had passed the debt on to the state attorney general’s office, which then sent it to a for-profit debt collection company and then to a private law firm. At each step along the way, interest was tacked on. His original bill of $2,447 ballooned to more than $4,250.

Fishburn, 34, can’t imagine when he’ll have the money to pay off his debt, and until he does, he can’t go back to college. He has been unemployed since his last job in television and film ended and the pandemic began. His wife is working, but with three young children and a mortgage, they have nothing left over to chip away at a debt that is now 74 percent more than what he originally owed.

To the surprise of many students and parents, public colleges in every state in the country except Louisiana use for-profit debt collection agencies to retrieve overdue tuition, library fees and even parking fines. (Louisiana, like several other states, sends students’ debts to the attorney general’s office, which can charge fees as high as 33 percent of the original bill.) Many universities add late fees to students’ bills, and when debt collectors add another 30 or 40 percent, students can end up owing thousands of dollars more than they did originally.  

As tuition has risen astronomically, one child care or medical crisis can push students over the edge and force them to choose between household bills and tuition payments. The extra fees and interest can make it impossible for them to get back on track, ruining their credit and imperiling their financial futures.

Public colleges have sent hundreds of thousands of students around the country to private debt collection agencies, and the spiraling debt held there now totals more than half a billion dollars, a Hechinger Report investigation has found through more than 60 inquiries with agencies in every state and more than 120 inquiries with individual institutions. For many students, the financial burden makes it impossible for them to return to college and earn degrees that could get them good jobs. State officials often bemoan a lack of college-educated workers for their economies, yet very few states track this problem. Most states cannot provide figures on how often their colleges use these companies, how many students are affected or how much in additional fees and interest is being charged. 

More than 36 million adults in the United States have earned some college credits but haven’t finished their degree, and experts say the barrier is often financial.

“Think about when you’re 18 years old and what you don’t know about managing debt. We had a lot of students who owed us these past balances … but they’re caught. They can’t enroll until they pay the debt, and they can’t get aid until they enroll.”

Dawn Medley, associate vice president of enrollment management, Wayne State University

“It’s overwhelmingly low-income students who are disproportionately being caught up in this vicious cycle,”said Juana H. Sánchez, senior associate at the public policy group HCM Strategists. “I don’t know that anyone is winning. The third-party collection agencies that are expanding their client base, they may be the only winners here.”

University administrators say they’re in a tough position. They say that with states regularly cutting education funding, they need the private agencies to retrieve as much money as they can. But there is also evidence that public colleges can do better financially if they keep students out of the hands of debt collection agencies; setting up payment plans, for example, means students are better able to pay what they owe and stay enrolled, which means tuition dollars keep flowing.

Administrators and government leaders pushing for reform also note that the stated mission of public universities is to provide an affordable education. If tuition were affordable, they say, students wouldn’t be stuck in the vise of debt collection agencies in the first place.

Some argue that private companies shouldn’t be able to profit off students’ financial woes.

Debt collection written into state law

In some states, the law requires that public colleges use collection agencies if a debt goes unpaid for too long.

In Ohio, public universities are required by law to send student debts to the state attorney general’s office after 45 days if the accounts are overdue. The state can then add a 10 percent fee. If a student cannot begin paying back the debt within four months — regardless of the reason, such as a job loss or a medical crisis — it usually goes to private debt collection agencies, which can increase the bill by another 21 percent. If the debt goes unpaid for 18 more months, a student could be charged as much as 35 percent more than the original debt.

The law was meant to ensure that public universities, and other state institutions, were collecting money owed and not passing on the costs to other taxpayers and students. Officials now say an unintended consequence is that the law has kept some low-income students from earning degrees.

In Ohio, more than 157,000 former public college students, who altogether owe $418 million, have debts that have been sent to private collection agencies or outside law firms

More than 157,000 former public college students in Ohio, who altogether owe $418 million, have debts that have been sent to private collection agencies or outside law firms and are struggling to pay back those debts. With few exceptions, they cannot reenroll in college or obtain their transcripts until they pay the entire amount.

Related: Hidden Debt Trap: Uncovering the billions of dollars in student debt you’ve never heard of

Recognizing the depth of the problem, Ohio’s higher education chancellor, Randy Gardner, an appointee of Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, earlier this month issued new guidance allowing colleges and universities to slow down the debt collection process. The new approach also clarifies that colleges may offer debt forgiveness to students who reenroll, a practice several colleges in Ohio have already adopted.

It’s unclear how many students will be affected by this new debt forgiveness pathway. Because the original law hasn’t been changed, students at colleges and universities that want to maintain the status quo can still end up with debt collectors pursuing them and with bills far beyond their original amount.

Someone like Jenny Jones, who found herself facing debt collectors last year when her daughter was set to graduate from Ohio State University, could have benefited from the relief program.

Jones’s daughter had taken summer classes in 2018 at the University of Cincinnati, near home, to make sure she could graduate in four years. Jones thought she could use Parent Plus loans (federal loans parents can take out to cover college costs for their children) to pay the tuition. She found out belatedly that the loans couldn’t be used for summer classes at the university.

Her principal balance of $2,712 grew to more than $4,600 by December of 2019. Jones’s own student loan payments are more than her mortgage, and with three kids to support, she was stuck.

Public colleges have sent hundreds of thousands of students around the country to private debt collection agencies, and the spiraling debt held there now totals more than half a billion dollars.

“I just felt this panic, like, oh, God, I don’t have that much money,” she said.

To top it off, just weeks before graduation, Jones, who is now 46, was told that her daughter couldn’t receive her degree, because the University of Cincinnati wouldn’t release an official transcript until Jones paid the debt. Frantically, she tried to negotiate a payment plan but couldn’t. In the end, she put the remaining balance on a credit card, which she is still paying off.

“I don’t dispute that I owed UC the tuition,” Jones said. “What I took exception to was the fact that these different agencies can almost double the amount that I’m supposed to pay.”

The university said it could not comment on specific students but said that it provides payment plans.

‘I really regret going back to college now’

Most states don’t have a timeline for repayment inscribed in law as Ohio does, but many public colleges impose their own deadlines along with additional fees and interest.

Missouri State University in Springfield, for example, sends about 1,100 students’ debt to collection agencies every year; the current total is about 7,300. At Hillsborough Community College in Florida, about 3,990 students are involved with debt collection agencies. Florida allows universities to use debt collection agencies that charge an additional 20 to 25 percent on top of the original bill. Debt collection agencies that contract with community colleges in California can add 39 percent. At some Kentucky public universities, the bill can grow by upward of 40 percent.

Related: Colleges are withholding transcripts and degrees from millions over unpaid bills

Sam Houston State University in Texas sends overdue accounts to private debt collection companies after about six months, according to the university’s public information officer. Currently, more than 2,200 students owe a total of roughly $5 million. These students cannot reenroll until their debts are fully paid.

Brendan Mullican, a former student at Sam Houston State, served in the Navy for four years, including in the Middle East during the 2003 Iraq War. The first in his family to go to college, he used the GI Bill to pay for classes that earned him a bachelor’s degree in 2013. Mullican got a job, but his employer said he needed additional accounting courses if he wanted to move up in the company.

Determined to get a better-paying job, Mullican continued taking classes while he was working. He kept track of his bills, which showed a zero balance after three semesters, when he stopped taking classes. A year later, he got a bill from the university for $9,760. After he disputed the bill in an email exchange with university administrators, communication ceased, he said, and Mullican assumed the situation was resolved. Instead, the university referred the debt to a collection agency without telling him, he said. He got a bill from the agency in 2017 informing him he owed $12,689.

Mullican, 36, says there’s no way he can pay that amount, but until he does, the college won’t let him reenroll and won’t release his transcript for the three semesters he completed.

“It just seems unethical,” said Mullican. “I really regret going back to college now. I can’t believe they would treat me that way. They say they do things to help vets, but it seems like it’s just a lie.”

A spokeswoman for Sam Houston State said she could not comment on individual students because of federal privacy law, but said that in general, students are responsible for all tuition and fees.

Some institutions, such as Northeastern Illinois University, the University of North Dakota and Gwinnett Technical College in Georgia, have decided not to charge students any extra fees, even when they send overdue balances to debt collection companies. Administrators say keeping the bill at its original amount makes it easier for students to set up payment plans and reenroll.

In Ohio, some state legislators, both Democrat and Republican, are working to ensure that students don’t end up with extra fees. But the proposals have met with opposition from some conservatives in the Republican-controlled state legislature. Some public university leaders oppose the change, too. And private debt collection agencies stand to lose millions of dollars if collection efforts are kept in house at the colleges.

Currently, six collection agencies in Ohio have contracts with the attorney general’s office. The largest is National Enterprise Systems Inc., which this year had 40,000 students and more than $95 million to collect, according to the Ohio attorney general’s office, potentially bringing up to $20 million in revenue to the company.

Between 2019 and the first quarter of 2021, state records showed that the company’s lobbyists met several times with the attorney general’s office about what was listed in public records as “collection decisions.”

Margie Brickner is the CEO of Reliant Capital Solutions LLC, which stands to make up to $3.5 million from student debt this year, based on figures obtained from the attorney general’s office. She donated $95,000 to the state Republican candidate fund between 2017 and 2020, according to public records kept by the Ohio secretary of state. She also contributed $4,000 to a candidate committee for Dave Yost, the current attorney general, in the lead-up to his election in 2018.

National Enterprise Systems did not respond to several requests for comment. A representative for Margie Brickner and Reliant said they declined to comment.

Related: Left in the lurch by for-profit college direct loans

The attorney general’s office itself also receives significant revenue when student debts are sent to its staff for collection, even before they go to the private agencies. The law allows a 10 percent additional fee, and as of this spring, there were about 385,000 students whose debts totaled more than $740 million.

On average, the office collects about $50 million each year, according to a report by Piet van Lier of Policy Matters Ohio, a nonprofit research institute; that could mean $5 million in revenue.

Debts sent to the attorney general’s office disproportionately came from campuses with a higher percentage of Black and Latino students, according to the report.

As in other states, efforts to reform this system in Ohio have been fueled by concerns about population decline and job losses. About 1.3 million Ohioans have completed some college but haven’t gotten a degree. State officials worry that businesses will shy away from the state without an increase in the number of college graduates.

“I don’t know that anyone is winning. The third-party collection agencies that are expanding their client base, they may be the only winners here.”

Juana H. Sánchez, senior associate at the public policy group HCM Strategists

“Some people are saying that’s the problem with our country — people want something for nothing,” said Thomas Lasley, CEO emeritus of the advocacy group Learn to Earn Dayton and a former dean at the University of Dayton. “It seems to me to be ludicrous that we make students who are struggling to finish their degrees incur even more charges and late fees and debt.”

Lasley said he was pleased with the new guidance from Gardner, Ohio’s higher education chancellor.

Related: How a decline in community college students is a big problem for the economy

Rep. Tom Young, a Republican, also sees that announcement as a good first step. He wants to make sure students have incentives to finish college and remain in Ohio, to build up the workforce. He emphasizes that his goal is not debt forgiveness but scaling up the programs that allow students to go back to school and earn their degrees.

“We want Ohio to be a place that can attract and keep businesses. The challenge we have is that sometimes life happens to people,” he said. “They leave school for some reason, and the debt continues to increase.”

Some argue that the new guidance will help only a small minority of students and that more sweeping change is needed.

“I don’t dispute that I owed UC the tuition. What I took exception to was the fact that these different agencies can almost double the amount that I’m supposed to pay.”

Jenny Jones, mother of a student who took classes at the University of Cincinnati

 “Ohio is one of the worst states in terms of college affordability, and that is a connected component and why this particular policy and practice is egregious,” said Prentiss Haney, a co-executive director of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, a grassroots community organization.

“There’s an incentive for the debt collection agency to lobby and make sure those debts are referred to them, instead of an incentive for university to keep debt,” Haney added.

The search for solutions

Even as several universities have expressed concerns behind the scenes about losing revenue, some say using collection agencies isn’t necessarily more effective than other ways to collect the money.

For example, in the fall of 2018, Wayne State University in Detroit started a program called Warrior Way Back. Former students who owe up to $1,500 are allowed to reenroll, and for each semester they complete, one-third of their debt is forgiven.

University administrators say the program has actually helped financially: Wayne State has gained $1.5 million in tuition from these students, after taking into account the debt it forgave.

“Think about when you’re 18 years old and what you don’t know about managing debt,” said Dawn Medley, the associate vice president of enrollment management at Wayne State, who created the program. “We had a lot of students who owed us these past balances — they may have had veterans’ benefits or remaining federal aid money, but they’re caught. They can’t enroll until they pay the debt, and they can’t get aid until they enroll.”

The program, and similar ones at institutions like Ivy Tech Community College in Indiana, requires extensive financial counseling and academic guidance to ensure that students can pay going forward and are on viable career paths.

Even before Ohio announced the new guidance, Cleveland State University had started forgiving up to $5,000 in exchange for reenrollment and course completion. Administrators there say they hope the forgiveness program can keep students from being sent to the attorney general’s office in the first place, so that fees and interest don’t pile up.

“Our program helps,” said Dean of Admissions Jonathan Wehner, Cleveland State University’s vice president of enrollment management and student success, “but really the dialogue we need to have is about affordability, and how we make sure that every student who could benefit from a four-year degree can get a four-year degree.”

Wehner and other university officials say they try to accommodate students as best they can, given the constraints of the law.

But even though Cleveland State has one of the most generous debt forgiveness programs in the state, it doesn’t help Fishburn. Students like him whose debts have already been sent to collection agencies are not eligible for the program.

So for now, he is still in limbo.

“The fact that they’re passing this debt around just makes no sense to me,” Fishburn said. “Someone’s profiting on it, for sure. It just seems like a giant scam to me.”

This story about debt collection was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for our higher education newsletter.

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