Portland woman sues Betsy DeVos for delaying rules targeting for-profit schools
Niesha Wright, 40, completed an associate's degree program at ITT Tech but soon discovered that the degree and the school's credits were not respected or transferable. (Courtesy of Niesha Wright)
Niesha Wright completed an associate's degree program at ITT Tech last summer, weeks before the for-profit giant began to crumble under increasing regulatory pressure from the Obama-era Department of Education.
She didn't leave the program as a proud graduate. The 40-year-old Portland resident had more than $25,000 in federal student loans and few useful skills to show for her two years at ITT Tech, according to her attorney. Wright hoped to obtain relief, along with tens of thousands of other jilted ITT students, through a federal student loan forgiveness program geared toward students who experienced misleading or predatory treatment at the hands of largely for-profit colleges.
But on June 14, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos said she would delay the Obama administration's proposed rules governing the loan forgiveness program. The Obama rules, set to take effect July 1, were designed to streamline the application process for students like Wright.
On Monday, Wright sued DeVos in federal court.
The lawsuit comes on the heels of a separate lawsuit from Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum and 18 of her colleagues last week challenging DeVos' legal authority to unilaterally delay the borrower defense rules without public process. "Had this rule gone into effect on July 1, as intended," Rosenblum said last week in a statement provided to The Oregonian/OregonLIve, "it would have provided important protections for borrowers who have been victimized by Portland woman sues Betsy DeVos for delaying rules targeting for-profit schools | OregonLive.com:
