STATEMENT from PPSL on President Trump's Executive Order to Dismantle the Department of Education
Washington, DC (March 20, 2025) – Today, President Trump issued an executive order directing Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to begin the process of dismantling the US Department of Education. The Project on Predatory Student Lending, the leading nonprofit legal organization representing borrowers defrauded by predatory colleges, issued the following statement.
Statement from Eileen Connor, President and Executive Director of the Project on Predatory Student Lending.
"Congress created the Department of Education and assigned it critical functions, which impact the lives of nearly every single American. The President does not have the constitutional authority to close an administrative agency, and this Executive Order does nothing to further an actual solution to the sizeable challenges that we face in higher education.
The clients we work with, people who have been cheated by their schools and left with worthless degrees and a mountain of debt, rely on the Department of Education to protect their rights and hold predatory schools accountable. They deserve a Department of Education that has the resources to do its job—one that doesn't rubber stamp predatory schools, waste taxpayer money, and betray our trust in higher education. It’s true that Federal Student Aid currently manages an enormous portfolio of student loans, with less than one percent of the number of employees at a bank of comparable size—but this is an argument for more resources, not fewer. Forty-four million American citizens put their faith in the government and borrowed federal student loans, and today the President abandons them.
This executive order is completely out of bounds and Congress must act to preserve the essential role of the Department of Education and the authority of the Constitution.”
About the Project on Predatory Student Lending
The Project on Predatory Student Lending (PPSL) is the leading legal organization representing student borrowers against predatory for-profit colleges and the policies that enable institutions to exploit and cheat students. PPSL uses bold, strategic litigation and advocacy to demand accountability in the higher education space and influence policy solutions to create a more just and affordable education system. PPSL represents more than one million student borrowers and its work has resulted in cancellation of more than $22 billion of fraudulent student loan debt.
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