The Department of Education under Betsy DeVos and the Trump administration is seemingly doing everything it can to eliminate consumer protections from schools of higher education that cause consumers to take out loans to attend. Secretary DeVos has been pushing for rollbacks on the Borrower Defense to Repayment program that gave students a way to … Read more
WASHINGTON—The U.S. Department of Education today announced a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that proposes to rescind Gainful Employment (GE) regulations in order to provide useful, transparent higher education data to students and treat all institutions of higher education fairly. “Students deserve useful and relevant data when making important decisions about their education post-high school,” … Read more
When you ask the average person if paying $90,000 for a two-year degree in an entry level field like web design makes any sense they’d hopefully question the logic of that. But when you add a salesperson in the mix promising all sorts of magical things, it’s not surprising an average consumer might fall for … Read more
The Office of Inspector General of the Department of Education was left recently politely scratching their head after reviewing proposed Congressional legislation to roll back protections for students from problematic debt. Congress is currently salivating to make changes while reauthorizing the Higher Education Act (HEA) and the OIG reviewed the proposals to “promote the efficient … Read more
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos seems to be waging a terrible war against student loan debtors who have been defrauded by their schools in order to extract federal student loan money. Since the Trump administration took over the Department of Education has not actually delivered relief to a single Borrower Defense to Repayment claim. Yet … Read more
In response to the request of the court appointed receiver for Jeremy marcus to turn over his luxury BMW, Marcus says he needs it to look for a job. More specifically, court documents say, “Mr. Marcus turned over his family vehicle, a 2015 Range Rover, to the Receiver without the need for a contested motion. … Read more
If I was ever to get into an academic research argument on the role of government, this would be the time. Frankly I’m just getting pissed off by the apparent disregard for student loan debtors by the Trump Department of Education. And before you react that this is a Trump reaction, it’s not. This is … Read more
Attorney General Josh Stein yesterday sued the U.S. Department of Education and Secretary Betsy DeVos for refusing to enforce the Gainful Employment Rule, a federal regulation designed to protect students from predatory for-profit schools. “Students are working hard to create a better future for themselves,” said Attorney General Josh Stein. “For-profit colleges must shoot straight … Read more
Question: Dear Steve, I owe a small fortune in student debt. I thought it was all “federal” loans, but apparently I took out a lot of “private” Sallie Mae loans as well. That I did not realize at the time. Finally, after years of being out of the workforce and a professional student, I now … Read more
There is a big difference between adjusting rules and regulations to help student loan debtors buried in federal government loans find any hope of a better future, and what is happening now at the Department of Education. It certainly seems that at every turn and opportunity U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is gutting and … Read more
Today sixteen consumer advocacy groups sent the following letter to members of Congress in hopes they would intervene to not allow the Department of Education to roll back or eliminate rules requiring for-profit schools to be responsible for the effectiveness of the education they provide. There is also concern that the Department of Education may … Read more
by Annie Waldman ProPublica, March 21, 2017, 10:44 a.m. A former lobbyist for an association of for-profit colleges resigned last Friday from the Department of Education, where he had worked for about a month. As ProPublica reported last week, the Trump administration had hired Taylor Hansen to join the department’s “beachhead” team, a group of … Read more
by Annie Waldman ProPublica, March 14, 2017, 8 a.m. Until June 2016, Taylor Hansen lobbied for the largest trade group of for-profit colleges. At the forefront of its agenda: eliminating a rule known as “gainful employment,” which can take away federal funding from for-profit colleges if their graduates fail to earn enough to repay student … Read more
Back in 2014 the Obama administration attempted to push forward the rule that would have required for-profit colleges to demonstrate the value of the education they were selling or get cut from federal student loan access. This final rule was intended to protect students at for-profit schools and colleges from becoming burdened by student loan … Read more
New analysis released today by the U.S. Department of Education reveals many for-profit schools would likely exceed the 90/10 federal funding limits if revenue from Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Defense (DOD) programs were included in the 90/10 calculation the same way Title IV funds are included. The annual 90/10 report … Read more