Judge: Betsy DeVos Cannot “Quash” Deposition About Her Actions Re: Defrauded Corinthian College Students | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Judge: Betsy DeVos Cannot “Quash” Deposition About Her Actions Re: Defrauded Corinthian College Students | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Judge: Betsy DeVos Cannot “Quash” Deposition About Her Actions Re: Defrauded Corinthian College Students

Former US ed sec Betsy DeVos did not want to give a formal, in-person account of her decision to side with defunct, for-profit, California-based Corinthian Colleges by not granting monetary relief to hundreds of thousand of students defrauded by this federal-aid-sucking monster.

However, on May 19, 2021, US District Judge William Alsup refreshingly denied DeVos’ “motion to quash a subpoena for her deposition.”

Alsup’s denial includes the backstory, excerpted here (parenthetical case references omitted for ease of reading; highlights mine):

Former Secretary of the United States Department of Education Elisabeth DeVos moves to quash a subpoena for her deposition, issued in co-pending litigation before the undersigned. Exceptional circumstances warranting the deposition, the motion is DENIED.

Our underlying suit, Sweet v. Cardona, concerns the lawfulness of the Department of Education’s eighteen-month halt in issuing decisions on student-loan borrower-defense applications under Secretary DeVos. Our story began in 1993 when Congress directed the Secretary of Education to specify the sort of school misconduct that borrowers may assert as a defense against repayment of their student loans. This “borrower-defense” apparatus lay dormant for its first several decades until May 2015 when the large for-profit college, Corinthian Colleges, Inc., collapsed. Students submitted a “flood” of borrower-defense applications, so Secretary John B. King appointed a special master in June 2015 to adjudicate claims and then updated the borrower-defense regulations in November 2016. But it remained a game of catch up. By the end of the Obama Administration, the Secretary had approved 31,773 applications and found 245 ineligible, for a 99.2% grant rate. Borrowers, however, had submitted 72,877 applications.

In 2017, newly-installed Secretary DeVos moved to rein in the previous CONTINUE READING: Judge: Betsy DeVos Cannot “Quash” Deposition About Her Actions Re: Defrauded Corinthian College Students | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Biden Extends Moratorium on Student Debt Collection; Dept. of Ed. Staff Expose DeVos Policies that Favor For-Profit College Sector | janresseger

Biden Extends Moratorium on Student Debt Collection; Dept. of Ed. Staff Expose DeVos Policies that Favor For-Profit College Sector | janresseger

Biden Extends Moratorium on Student Debt Collection; Dept. of Ed. Staff Expose DeVos Policies that Favor For-Profit College Sector

The Biden Department of Education has already begun taking action on higher education policy.

On Student Loan Debt Collection

First, there is positive news for student loan borrowers. As one of his first-day—January 20, 2021—executive orders, President Joseph Biden extended former President Trump’s moratorium on demanding federal student loan repayments through September 30, 2021.

The Washington Post‘s Danielle Douglas-Gabriel reports: “Following a request from President Biden, the Education Department said Wednesday it would extend the suspension of federal student loan payments through Sept. 30. The move arrives days before the moratorium is set to expire at the end of this month.  It makes good on Biden’s pledge to give borrowers some breathing room as the economy struggles to find its footing…  (T)he acting secretary of education said the agency would extend the pause on federal student loan payments and collections and keep the interest rate at 0 percent… With the extension, all borrowers with student loans from the Education Department will see their payments automatically suspended until Sept. 30 without penalty or accrual of interest. Each month until then will still count toward loan forgiveness for borrowers in public-service jobs. It will also count toward student loan rehabilitation, a federal program that erases a default from a person’s credit report after nine consecutive payments.”

Biden’s executive action extending the moratorium on student loan debt collection applies CONTINUE READING: Biden Extends Moratorium on Student Debt Collection; Dept. of Ed. Staff Expose DeVos Policies that Favor For-Profit College Sector | janresseger