Nearly two dozen of the country’s Democratic attorney generals are suing the Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos
Elizabeth (Betsy) Dee DeVosClinton: ‘Teachers shouldn’t be forced to choose between their lives and their jobs’ Note to President Trump: College students are not sponges 7 out of 10 parents say sending children to school is a risk: MORE survey about his reversal of the Obama-era regulations that allowed students to seek student loan relief if they were scammed by their higher education institution.
“If only college students in the United States could count on the US Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, to fight for them, as they have always done for the predatory, for-profit educational industry that has deceived and deceived these same students, “said the California Attorney General Xavier Becerra
Xavier BecerraMassachusetts sues Lyft, Uber for allegedly misclassifying drivers as California contractors to sue over Trump’s new student visa restrictions States say the Department of Education is illegally diverting pandemic aid to private schools MORE, who led the complaint to Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, said in a statement Wednesday.
He added: “Under his leadership, the US Department of Education has replaced critical borrower protections with a process that makes it virtually impossible for victimized students to get the relief they should qualify for. With today’s lawsuit, we continue to fight for the protection of student borrowers so that everyone seeking a college degree can do so without being deceived by exploiting for-profit universities. “
The policies in question, often called the borrower’s defense, are required to exist due to amendments made to the Higher Education Act in 1994.
The Obama administration restructured the policies in 2016, so students can apply for federal loan forgiveness if universities succeed in enrolling with false pretenses. The policy especially helped students who had been abandoned by fraudulent for-profit universities who had lied about the success of their graduates.
DeVos’ revised version of the policies increases the requirements that students must meet to obtain student loan relief. Students must now demonstrate that their earnings have been affected by false statements from their institutions, even if they can prove that their universities were dishonest in the first place.
The secretary’s review was initially rejected by bipartisan legislation passed by Congress, but President Trump
Donald John TrumpIvanka Trump launches Goya Foods products on Twitter Sessions defends the challenge: “I leave the elected office with my integrity intact” Former White House doctor Ronny Jackson wins the second round of Texas MORE He vetoed the bill, arguing that “it sought to reimpose an Obama-era regulation that defined educational fraud so broadly that it threatened to paralyze the nation’s higher education system.”
The Chamber was unable to revoke the veto, allowing the new regulation to take effect on July 1.
Angela Morabito, the press secretary for the Department of Education, criticized the lawsuit, calling it “another great and politically directed lawsuit aimed at getting a cheap headline.”
“For any objective observer, our borrower defense rule clearly protects students against fraud, ensures they are entitled to financial aid if they suffered harm, and holds schools accountable,” Morabito told The Hill.
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