Merikha Fletcher was about to become the first person in her family to go to college. She wanted to study design, so she enrolled at The Art Institute of New York City, one of 44 Art Institutes nationwide. She was told it would cost around $60,000 for the two-year, Associate’s Degree course. The good news, they said, was that she qualified for a student loan. She was able to get $37,000, but, they said, your mom can apply for more which, of course she did, $42,000 more. They promised her work experience, help getting a job after college and tutoring. None of that materialized. The school closed, and she found out not one of her credits from the for-profit school would be recognized by any institution. And she was expected to pay $3,000 a month back on her loan. She now works a minimum wage job. Both her and her mom are on the hook. Merikha’s story is the same as that of millions of others buried under student loan debt. She joins us to tell her story, along with Johnson Tyler of Legal Services NYC, the attorney working to help Merikha and others find some relief from their crushing debt.