Thursday, September 13, 2018

Trump and DeVos Lose Special Interest Education-Related Lawsuit and Rightly So

The best scene possible: DeVos heading totally out of office
(ASAP or sooner)

The headlines from Bloomberg:

Betsy DeVos Loses Student Loan Lawsuit Brought by 19 States
·        Judge says department’s postponement of rule was improper
·        Hearing on remedies in case scheduled in Washington 

(Bloomberg) – Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos lost a lawsuit brought by 19 states and the District of Columbia, accusing her department of wrongly delaying implementation of Obama-era regulations meant to protect students who took out loans to attend college from predatory practices. 

A Washington federal court judge ruled the education department, under DeVos and their postponement of the so-called Borrower Defense rule, was procedurally improper. Background: The Obama administration created the rule in the wake of revelations that some for-profit colleges enticed students with promises of an education and diplomas that would allow them to get jobs in their chosen fields. 

In reality, many of those school certifications weren’t recognized by prospective employers, but still leaving graduates saddled with student loans they couldn’t repay. 

The Obama regulations changed the rules for forgiving student loans in cases of school misconduct and required “financially risky institutions to be prepared to cover government losses in those instances” that according to District Judge Randolph Moss in his 57-page ruling.

More background on this subject from NBC News here.

This extract from The Atlantic is a good read, too:

When the Education Department announced, in June 2017, that it would begin the process of rewriting the rules, borrower advocates saw it as evidence of a coziness with the for-profit sector

Several staffers who had relationships with for-profits were forced to recuse themselves from working on regulations such as these. But now it has come to light that in the early days of the Trump education department at least one official was communicating with his contacts in the for-profit industry while also eagerly seeking to discuss the two rules now being rolled back. 

The two regulations are known as the “borrower defense” and “gainful employment” rules. Borrower defense provided students a streamlined path to debt relief if they were defrauded by their college; the 2016 rule was rolled back before it even took effect.

The gainful-employment rule sought to cut off federal loans to schools if their students did not make enough money after graduation to pay them off. 

Both regulations were an attempt by the Education Department under President Barack Obama to protect students from fly-by-night colleges in the for-profit sector.

My 2 cents: DeVos as expected tried to pull a fast one and favor crooks like that those schools who were ripping off students and making bundles of money off of them and their student loans with fake or phony promises. 

The above stunt pulled by DeVos proves my point – she is basically anti-public education and on orders from Trump, strongly anti-Obama education rules.

Rules which I have to say were good rules and sometimes good rules are needed like in this case to protect students and the student loan program and to keep away slick con-artists and rip-off groups out to make a ton of money from broken promises.

DeVos in facts needs to get out of office. She is the least-qualified and less-educated of any past education secretary. But, she is a billionaire and gladly forked over tons of money to GOP candidates, the RNC, and yes even a bundle to Trump’s 2016 campaign, ergo: That’s how and why she got the job. But, she totally unfit to continue serving in it.

Thanks for stopping by.

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