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.

• The Injustice of Irregular Bankruptcy Student Loan Discharges

  Katy Stech Ferek published an article in Wall Street Journal in which she reported that bankruptcy judges are becoming more sympathetic to debtors seeking to discharge their student loans in bankruptcy. Is Ferek correct? I once would...

  • Posted June 18, 2018
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  ECMC and Department of Education Kick Hard at Student Loan Debtor But Court Award Discharge

  Barbara Erkson, an unmarried 64-year-old woman, filed an adversary proceeding in a Maine bankruptcy court in an attempt to discharge $107,000 in student loans in bankruptcy. The U.S. Department of Education and Educational Credit Management Corporation (ECMC)...

  • Posted June 18, 2018
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  For-Profit Law School Sues ABA and Claims Quality is Vague and Hard to Determine

  Earlier this month, Arizona Summit Law School sued the American Bar Association after the ABA’s accreditors put the school on probation. Don Lively, Arizona Summit’s president, claims the ABA’s accrediting standards are “vague, indeterminate, and subject to...

  • Posted May 31, 2018
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  Mike Meru Racked Up $1 Million in Student Loans to Go to Dental School

  Perhaps you read Josh Mitchell’s story in the Wall Street Journal about Mike Meru, who took out $600,000 in student loans to go to dental school at University of Southern California. Due to fees and accrued interest,...

  • Posted May 29, 2018
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  The Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program is a Train Wreck, and $350 Million Won’t Fix It

  The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program (PSLF), created by Congress in 2007, allows people in public service jobs to make income-based student-loan payments for ten years. If they make 120 payments, their loan balances will be forgiven...

  • Posted May 25, 2018
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  Only 1 in 4 Law School Graduates Passed California Bar Exam Last February

  Much like the Lusitania, legal education steams full speed toward its ultimate destruction, while law school deans and professors sip California wine and contemplate their retirement portfolios. Earlier this month, the California’s State Bar announced passage rates...

  • Posted May 23, 2018
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  A Life of Student Loan Servitute

  Pope Francis once said that a life prison sentence is essentially a death sentence, and of course he is right. Something similar can be said about college borrowers who see their debt load double, triple, or even...

  • Posted May 8, 2018
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  Predatory Payday Loans, a Dramatic Social Ill — What Will Congress and Louisiana Do?

  Pope Francis once called usury, the practice of lending money at unreasonably high interest rates, a “dramatic social ill.” The supreme pontiff went on to say, “when a family has nothing to eat because it has to...

  • Posted May 3, 2018
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  It’s Official: The Republicans Hate Student-Loan Debtors

  A few days ago, Republicans introduced their bill for revising the Higher Education Act. Some provisions in the GOP proposal are astonishing in their cruelty and contempt for student debtors. Abolishing income-driven repayment plans. For starters, the...

  • Posted March 20, 2018
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  Attorney General Proves Student Loan Debt Can Be Wiped Out in Bankruptcy

  Maura Healey, Massachusetts Attorney General, announced last month that her office is partnering with the Massachusetts Bar Association and the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce to organize volunteer lawyers to represent distressed college debtors in bankruptcy. This...

  • Posted February 5, 2018
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  Betsy DeVos is Trying to Nullify a Federal Law Intended to Give Defrauded Students Relief From Student Loans: Our Government is Shielding Crooks

  Betsy DeVos is in bed with the corrupt for-profit college industry. Her slavish pandering to the for-profit-college racketeers is truly shocking. Now she is trying to nullify a law that gives relief to students who were defrauded...

  • Posted January 15, 2018
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  Forget the Russians and Focus on Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos

  Almost 44 million Americans are student-loan debtors, and every single one of them should see Betsy DeVos as their mortal enemy. Since President Trump appointed her as Secretary of Education, DeVos has done nothing to ease the...

  • Posted January 8, 2018
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  Betsy DeVos Says Students Defrauded by For-Profit Colleges May Only Get Partial Debt Relief

  As Martin Luther King wrote from the Birmingham Jail, justice too long delayed is justice denied. And of course justice that is not only delayed but incomplete is nothing more than a cynical parody of justice. As...

  • Posted January 4, 2018
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  Law School Might Be The Dumbest Financial Move You’ll Ever Make

  You say you went to law school to pursue a better life. Your LSAT scores weren’t so hot, so you were turned down by the top law schools. Harvard and Yale tossed out your application with its...

  • Posted December 15, 2017
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  If You Have a Graduate Student Tuition Waiver – Prepare to Pay Tax On It

  A tax bill passed the House of Representatives a few days ago, and Republican congresspeople went out of their way to show contempt for America’s postsecondary students. The House bill treats tuition waivers as income, which means...

  • Posted November 20, 2017
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