Hope for student borrowers: Settlement requires administration move faster

How should the government help students defrauded by for-profit colleges? A lawsuit is pushing the Education Department to act more quickly on loan forgiveness – and raising questions about accountability and fairness.

Fresh hope arrived this month for about 170,000 student borrowers who say their colleges defrauded them. Their requests for forgiveness of federal student loans, known as “borrower defense” claims, have gone unanswered by the U.S. Department of Education for months or years.

Now the agency, led by Secretary Betsy DeVos, has agreed to a firm 18-month deadline...