Judge Orders DeVos to Testify About Cruel Treatment of Students Who Were Defrauded | Diane Ravitch's blog

Judge Orders DeVos to Testify About Cruel Treatment of Students Who Were Defrauded | Diane Ravitch's blog

Judge Orders DeVos to Testify About Cruel Treatment of Students Who Were Defrauded

Salon wrote about a

A federal judge on Wednesday ruled that former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos will have to testify in a class action lawsuit over her handling of the Education Department’s student debt loan forgiveness program.

Judge William Alsup said “exceptional circumstances” warrant issuing DeVos a subpoena, a move that goes against both Devos’ and the Biden administration’s requests to excuse her from providing testimony.

The lawsuit, which has been brought on behalf of about 160,000 borrowers, alleges that the plaintiffs were defrauded by for-profit colleges and then neglected by the federal government.

The controversy dates back to 2018, when the Department of Education unexpectedly stopped making decisions on “student-loan borrower-defense applications,” in which students could petition the CONTINUE READING: Judge Orders DeVos to Testify About Cruel Treatment of Students Who Were Defrauded | Diane Ravitch's blog

Secretary Cardona Begins to Correct DeVos’s College Loan Policies that Undermined Vulnerable College Students’ Access to Education | janresseger

Secretary Cardona Begins to Correct DeVos’s College Loan Policies that Undermined Vulnerable College Students’ Access to Education | janresseger

Secretary Cardona Begins to Correct DeVos’s College Loan Policies that Undermined Vulnerable College Students’ Access to Education

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona has begun repairing some of the injustice of Betsy DeVos’s policies in the federal college loan program administered by the U.S. Department of Education.

In an extremely significant first step, two weeks ago, Cardona replaced Mark A Brown, who had been appointed by Betsy DeVos in 2019 to oversee the Department’s enormous student loan program. Brown is known to have favored the interests of the for-profit colleges that depend for their existence on tuition derived from student loans. As Brown’s replacement, Cardona has appointed Richard Cordray, a dogged advocate for the students and military veterans who have been preyed upon by for-profit colleges.

The Washington Post‘s Danielle Douglas-Gabriel reports: “Education Secretary Miguel Carrdona… named Richard Cordray, the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, to head the federal office that oversees the government’s $1.5 trillion student loan portfolio. Cordray led the bureau’s crackdown on consumer abuses in debt collection, student loan servicing, and for-profit colleges, garnering the respect of advocates and drawing the ire of those industries. His selection signals tougher oversight of the Education Department’s contractors and enforcement of the rules governing federal student aid… During his six-year tenure at the CFPB, which he joined in 2011, Cordray frequently clashed with the financial industry and conservatives over his aggressive regulation. His efforts to weed out poor servicing of student loans and predatory career training schools at times put him at odds with the Education Department… The CFPB under Cordray’s direction brought some of the most high-profile student lending cases in recent years. Among them: a lawsuit against the now-defunct for-profit giant Corinthian Colleges for steering students into private loans that had interest rates as high as 15 percent.”

In a piece for The American Prospect, Robert Kuttner summarizes some of the outrageous CONTINUE READING: Secretary Cardona Begins to Correct DeVos’s College Loan Policies that Undermined Vulnerable College Students’ Access to Education | janresseger

Secretary of Education Joins Senator Warren and Senator Schumer for Discussion With Student Loan Borrowers and Advocates + HBCU Capital Finance Debt | U.S. Department of Education

Secretary of Education Joins Senator Elizabeth Warren and Senator Chuck Schumer for a Roundtable Discussion With Student Loan Borrowers and Advocates | U.S. Department of Education

Secretary of Education Joins Senator Elizabeth Warren and Senator Chuck Schumer for a Roundtable Discussion With Student Loan Borrowers and Advocates

Today, Secretary Cardona joined a roundtable discussion alongside Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Elizabeth Warren to listen as student loan borrowers and advocates shared their stories about the impact student loan debt has had on their lives. The borrowers and advocates included a veteran father of five who was misled by a for-profit college, a recent college graduate, and a mother whose student loan debt led her to experience homelessness. The Secretary listened, asked questions of the advocates and promised to take the information he learned and the stories he heard back to the Department of Education to inform many of the future decisions regarding student loan debt.

"What I am hearing from you all is not only that there is this cloud hanging over your heads, but also that there is this great emotional impact which has severely interrupted your lives. This burden has created a generational impact of distress," said Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. "Behind every case, there's a family, there's a person, there's a story. All of you sharing your stories helps to create a picture of what this is. There's work to be done. I'm committed to this, and your stories have strengthened my resolve to do as much as I can to support you and students like you."

Secretary of Education Joins Senator Elizabeth Warren and Senator Chuck Schumer for a Roundtable Discussion With Student Loan Borrowers and Advocates | U.S. Department of Education

Department of Education Discharges Over $1.6 billion in HBCU Capital Finance Debt

The U.S. Department of Education recently discharged approximately $1.6 billion of debt provided to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) that participate in the HBCU Capital Financing Program. This action will provide debt relief to 45 HBCUs – 13 public institutions and 32 private institutions.

"Our HBCUs have long been on an uneven playing field, financially, as compared to many other postsecondary institutions," said Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. "This relief will further support these mission-critical institutions and help to ensure they have more resources to educate and graduate students during the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic."

The Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act (CRRSAA) signed into law in December 2020 provided authority and funding to discharge debts held by HBCUs under the HBCU Capital Financing Program. In combination with funds provided in the American Rescue Plan, signed by President Biden on March 11, 2021, and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), HBCUs will also receive more than $5 billion through the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund programs.

Since 1994, the HBCU Capital Financing Program has provided low-cost loans to finance and refinance infrastructure improvements at the nation's HBCUs.

Discharging these debts helps enable these institutions to focus their resources on supporting students, faculty, and staff for the duration of the COVID-19 national emergency. HBCUs can dedicate more funds to innovating the academic experience, supporting the socio-emotional development of their students, and continue as the leading producers of Black doctors and teachers during a time when the United States needs them most.

Institutions Receiving HBCU Capital Finance Debt Discharges

• Alabama A&M University
• Allen University
• Alabama State University
• Arkansas Baptist College
• Saint Augustine's University
• Benedict College
• Bennett College
• Bethune–Cookman University
• Barber-Scotia College
• Central State University
• Claflin University
• Clark Atlanta University
• Florida A&M University
• Florida Memorial University
• Grambling State University
• Hampton University
• Harris–Stowe State University
• Huston-Tillotson University
• Jarvis Christian College
• Johnson C. Smith University
• Lane College
• Lawson State Community College
• LeMoyne-Owen College
• Livingstone College
• Meharry Medical College
• Miles College
• Morgan State University
• Morehouse College
• Morehouse School of Medicine
• Philander Smith College
• South Carolina State University
• Shaw University
• Stillman College
• Southern University at Baton Rouge
• Southern University at Shreveport
• Talladega College
• Texas College
• Texas Southern University
• Tuskegee University
• University of the Virgin Islands
• Virginia Union University
• Voorhees College
• Wilberforce University
• Wiley College
• Xavier University of Louisiana

Department of Education Discharges Over $1.6 billion in HBCU Capital Finance Debt

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona Begins to Rectify Injustice in Department’s College Loan Program | janresseger

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona Begins to Rectify Injustice in Department’s College Loan Program | janresseger

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona Begins to Rectify Injustice in Department’s College Loan Program

Last Thursday, March 18, 2021, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona rescinded a policy devised by his predecessor, Betsy DeVos, for processing complaints by students who claimed to have been defrauded by unscrupulous for-profit colleges and trade schools. DeVos’s policy denied debt relief for thousands of students whose complaints were not carefully or fairly considered.

The U.S. Department of Education manages an enormous higher education loan program which has been criticized by borrowers and members of Congress alike—all concerned that under former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, student borrowers were left unprotected after for-profit colleges and trade schools induced them to take out big loans for shoddy education programs. Because these institutions are highly dependent on federal student loans to cover their operating expenses, they too frequently prey on students and military veterans with fraudulent advertising about the nature and quality of the programs to which they lure students. A federal rule called “the borrower defense to repayment” is supposed to protect students by cancelling their student loans when the students can prove the schools’ promises were fraudulent.

The Washington Post‘s Danielle Douglas-Gabriel explains the significance of Cardona’s action last week: “About 72,000 people will have their federal loans canceled after Education CONTINUE READING: Education Secretary Miguel Cardona Begins to Rectify Injustice in Department’s College Loan Program | janresseger

Biden needs to pursue student loan forgiveness - USA TODAY

Biden needs to pursue student loan forgiveness

Student loan forgiveness: Biden can restore a broken promise

We found a minefield of deceptions by student loan companies and negligent indifference by government officials.

Kelly Finlaw is a middle school art teacher in New York City. Over the last year, she has also been called an “essential employee,” a “frontline worker” and — a term she has certainly never attributed to herself — a “hero.” During this time, she has done everything she could to meet the needs of her students and make remote learning work as well as possible, all the while knowing it is no substitute for being in the classroom with her students.

Yet despite delivering on her promise to educate the next generation of Americans — even in the midst of a pandemic — the federal government has broken its promise to her. Finlaw remains stuck with nearly $90,000 in student debt that should have been canceled years ago.

Finlaw, along with millions of others, was made a simple pledge: If she worked for a decade as an educator, as a nurse or in another public service profession, her student debt would be wiped away. 

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program 

That was the intent of the federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness program — a bipartisan law that recognized that spiraling student debt burdens are particularly punishing for workers in public service, and that our communities and our country are worse off if this burden drives a generation of students away from careers as educators, healthcare workers, first responders, and other public service workers. CONTINUE READING: Biden needs to pursue student loan forgiveness

ANDRE PERRY: The next education secretary must know about much more than education

The next education secretary must know about much more than education

The next education secretary must know about much more than education

Our schools are in crisis. We need Biden to tell us who our new secretary of education will be ASAP

In the days after President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, you didn’t have to be inside the beltway to hear whispers of names being floated for cabinet positions — rumors that were later confirmed as fact: Janet Yellen, former chair of the Federal Reserve Board (Department of the Treasury); Vivek Murthy, former Surgeon General under President Barak Obama (named to serve in the same role); Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Politics (Office of Management and Budget); and Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who served as the top diplomat in Africa during the Obama Administration (Ambassador to the United Nations).

But alas, we’re still waiting on the name of Biden’s education secretary, the person who will help lead our schools out of one of the biggest crises in the history of American education.

Because of President Donald Trump’s clownish denial of the election results, Biden got a later start than his predecessors at naming his nominees for the top spots in his nascent administration, and there are many more departmental roles Biden must begin to fill. However, if there is anything that the entire country can agree on it is that our schools are in the middle of an epic disaster. Uneven access to broadband, resource disparities between upper- and lower-income districts and differences in family resources across racial lines, foreshadow widening achievement gaps. Also, parents are tired of playing the roles of substitute teacher, lunch lady and security guard (all at the same time). They desperately need to hear when and how all students might return to schools safely.

The country needs an education secretary who understands the systemic nature of our current problems, across sectors.

We need leadership on this issue — yesterday. CONTINUE READING: The next education secretary must know about much more than education

Actions Last Week Extend the Student Loan Debt Cliff and Protect DACA | janresseger

Actions Last Week Extend the Student Loan Debt Cliff and Protect DACA | janresseger

Actions Last Week Extend the Student Loan Debt Cliff and Protect DACA

There is a lot to worry about right now—an unhinged President who has given up governing, a divided Congress, a raging pandemic, and, so far at least, Congressional failure to pass an economic relief bill as the COVID-19 recession intensifies.

Two developments last week should, however, be seen as hopeful. Both will protect vulnerable young people through the Presidential transition and into the Biden administration, when it is expected that policies will be revised.

Student Loan Debt Cliff Extended until January 31st to Protect 41 Million Borrowers

Last Friday, Betsy DeVos extended a COVID-19 moratorium on the collection of student loan payments, a moratorium that had been expected to expire on New Years Eve. The moratorium on student loan payments began with the CARES Act and last summer had been extended by President Trump’s executive order until December 31.

Politico‘s Michael Stratford reports: “The Trump administration on Friday granted an extra month of student loan relief to the 41 million Americans who have been benefiting from a freeze on monthly payments and interest that was set to expire at the end of the year. The relief was set to expire on Dec. 31, but will now end on January 31. The last-minute extension averts what could have been a potentially chaotic resumption of payments just weeks before President-elect Joe Biden takes office…  Roughly 33 million of those borrowers have had their payments paused, and the Education Department has stopped seeking to collect from the 8 million other borrowers who were in default.”

Back in November, Stratford warned about the chaos that would happen in January if the CONTINUE READING: Actions Last Week Extend the Student Loan Debt Cliff and Protect DACA | janresseger

The “insidious” Betsy DeVos. But what will the Democrats do about student loan debt? – Fred Klonsky

The “insidious” Betsy DeVos. But what will the Democrats do about student loan debt? – Fred Klonsky

THE “INSIDIOUS” BETSY DEVOS. BUT WHAT WILL THE DEMOCRATS DO ABOUT STUDENT LOAN DEBT?

The insidious Betsy and Dick DeVos.

Departing Education Secretary Betsy DeVos blasted student debt forgiveness in what was likely her last major policy speech, calling proposals like free college and the cancellation of student loan debt “truly insidious.”

“We’ve heard shrill calls to cancel, to forgive, to make it all free. Any innocuous label out there can’t obfuscate what it really is: wrong.”

DeVos called it, “The truly insidious notion of government gift giving.”

Well, she would know something about government gift giving.

CNBC reported:

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and her family are among the groups that have seen an income boon of millions through their own investments since Trump’s tax reform plan was signed, CONTINUE READING: 

The “insidious” Betsy DeVos. But what will the Democrats do about student loan debt? – Fred Klonsky

Judge blasts DeVos’ sweeping denials of student loan relief claims as ‘disturbingly Kafkaesque’ - POLITICO

Judge blasts DeVos’ sweeping denials of student loan relief claims as ‘disturbingly Kafkaesque’ - POLITICO

Judge blasts DeVos’ sweeping denials of student loan relief claims as ‘disturbingly Kafkaesque’

The judge ruled that DeVos had undermined the deal by denying large swaths of the claims without sufficient explanation.

A federal judge scrapped a settlement Tuesday over the Trump administration’s slow processing of loan forgiveness for borrowers who have accused their colleges of fraud, ruling that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos undermined the deal.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup said in a sharply worded decision that DeVos undercut the settlement by denying large swaths of the claims without sufficient explanation.

The class-action settlement, which was reached earlier this year and received preliminary approval from the court, was meant to force the Education Department to move faster on final decisions for roughly 160,000 of the backlogged requests for loan forgiveness, known as “borrower defense” claims. Some of the claims have languished at the department for years.

Alsup said he is alarmed that DeVos has in recent months responded by swiftly rejecting tens of thousands of the applications through “perfunctory” denial notices. Of the applications in question in the class-action lawsuit, DeVos has denied 74,000 applications and granted 4,400 applications, which the judge noted was a denial rate of 94 percent.

Ruling justification: Alsup called the denial notices “potentially unlawful” and said he was considering blocking DeVos from issuing any further denial notices as the lawsuit proceeds.

The judge, who President Bill Clinton appointed for the Northern District of CONTINUE READING: Judge blasts DeVos’ sweeping denials of student loan relief claims as ‘disturbingly Kafkaesque’ - POLITICO