All posts by Richard Fossey

About Richard Fossey

Richard Fossey is a professor at the University of Louisiana in Lafayette, Louisiana. He received his law degree from the University of Texas and his doctorate from Harvard Graduate School of Education. He is editor of Catholic Southwest, A Journal of History and Culture.

• 
  Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program is a “Disaster” According to DOE Official

  In a recent speech, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos called the federal student loan program “a thunderstorm loom on the horizon.” Only 20 percent of borrowers are paying down the principal and interest on their loans, DeVos...

  • Posted December 10, 2018
  • 0
• 
  Betsy DeVos Appears to Admit the Federal Student Loan Program is Doomed

  Betsy DeVos, President Trump’s Secretary of Education, gave a speech a few days ago in which she candidly acknowledged that the federal student-loan program is in crisis. In fact, she compared the student loan program to a...

  • Posted December 4, 2018
  • 0
• 
  These Two Colleges Face Their Demise With Grace

  “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done.” Who said that? I think it was some dead guy from the 19th century. Charles Dickens maybe? Iowa Wesleyan University and Valparaiso...

  • Posted November 9, 2018
  • 0
• 
  Education Corporation of America Tries to Slam Door to Keep Out Plaintiffs

  Update: The Judge hearing the ECA case, dismissed it after the guest post below was submitted. I guess it’s game on again. Education Corporation of America (ECA), a for-profit college chain, brazenly filed a federal lawsuit in...

  • Posted November 6, 2018
  • 13
• 
  We Will Give More Than You Can Afford to Borrow and Then Punish You For Doing So

  In April 2016, Pierre Augustin filed an adversary complaint in a Maryland bankruptcy court, seeking to discharge $210,000 in student loan debt. He told the court he had been burdened by this debt for 24 years, and...

  • Posted October 31, 2018
  • 1
• 
  Education Corporation of America files for receivership: Using lawyers’ tricks to suck up more federal student-loan money

  Education Corporation of America (ECA), a for-profit college chain, filed a lawsuit a few days ago in an Alabama federal court. The lawsuit seeks to put ECA into receivership, and it asks the court to halt all...

  • Posted October 25, 2018
  • 2
• 
  Why Did Department of Education Let FedLoan Servicing Screw People Over PSLF?

  As Alan White reported in Credit Slip yesterday, the U.S. Department of Education assigned the complex task of monitoring the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program to its worst-performing student-loan servicer–FedLoan Servicing (Fedloan). In 2017, DOE ranked...

  • Posted October 15, 2018
  • 0
• 
  Department of Education Keeps Backing Up to Run Over PSLF Again and Again

  For many years, the Department of Education has managed the federal student-loan program like a drunk creeping through heavy traffic. It has stumbled, reeled, dissembled, weaved and bobbed, but always avoided a head-on collision with reality. But...

  • Posted October 3, 2018
  • 0
• 
  Sue Reagan v. Educational Credit Management Corporation: “A Camel Whose Back is Already Broken”

  Sue Reagan is 60-years old and lives in a mobile home on rented land. She has a part-time job but lives near or below the poverty line. She took out student loans to obtain a bachelor’s degree...

  • Posted October 1, 2018
  • 0
• 
  ECMC to Go Suck an Egg

  Educational Credit Management Corporation is the Department of Education’s premier student-loan debt collector. ECMC has appeared in literally hundreds of student-loan bankruptcy cases, and it knows all the legal tricks for defeating a student-loan borrower’s efforts...

  • Posted September 24, 2018
  • 0
• 
  Department of Education’s New Report on Student-Loan Casualties: A Dr. Strangelove Moment

  You remember that great scene from the movie Dr. Strangelove. U.S. President Muffley (played by Peter Sellers) worries about the consequences of nuclear war with Russia. “You’re talking about mass murder,” President Muffley muses. But General Turgidson...

  • Posted September 24, 2018
  • 2
• 
  What If We Just Fixed the Income-Based Student Loan Repayment System

  Sandy Baum published a short essay yesterday in the Chronicle of Higher Education titled “Don’t Get Rid of the Income-Based Loan Repayment System. Fix It.” As she said in her essay, the federal student-loan repayment system as...

  • Posted August 2, 2018
  • 0
• 
  Betsy DeVos, the for-profit college industry’s best pal, rolls back regulatory protections for students who were defrauded by for-profit colleges

  This week, Betsy DeVos, President Trump’s lamentable Secretary of Education, proposed new rules for implementing the Department of Education’s Borrower Defense to Repayment Program. The new rules–433 pages long–outline the DeVos regime’s procedures for processing fraud claims...

  • Posted July 27, 2018
  • 0
• 
  Student Loan Debtor Near Retirement Told to Live Poor for the Rest of Her Life

  Audrey Eve Schatz, a 64-year-old single woman, attempted to discharge $110,000 in student-loans through bankruptcy, but Judge Elizabeth Katz, a Massachusetts bankruptcy judge, refused to give Ms. Schatz a discharge. Why? Because Schatz had enough equity in...

  • Posted July 19, 2018
  • 0
• 
  National Collegiate Student Loan Trust Case Inside Look of Mock

  In 2007, Casondra Mock, a Texas resident, borrowed about $20,000 from Union Federal Savings Bank, a Rhode Island institution, to finance her studies at the University of Houston at Clear Lake. The interest rate was high–almost 14...

  • Posted July 18, 2018
  • 0