News
Devos Refuses To Forgive Student Debt For Those Defrauded By For-Profit Colleges | NPR
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is in a standoff with Democrats over why she is refusing to forgive the debts of tens of thousands of borrowers who say they were defrauded by for-profit colleges.
Time 100 Next | Time
Years before student debt would be widely considered a national crisis—Americans now owe a combined $1.6 trillion—Toby Merrill started using litigation to fight what she calls the “worst-of-the-worst student debt,” the kind incurred by students who enrolled in predatory for-profit colleges that burdened them with debt and provided them with worthless degrees.
Rising Debt and Fewer Regulations are Leaving Students Vulnerable to Predatory Colleges | NBC
Theresa Sweet’s parents gave her a 35-millimeter camera when she was in the third grade. She fondly recalls saving her allowance to develop film as she became the family photographer. It was a gift that would change her life forever, setting her on a path into the world of for-profit colleges.
Trump Admin Backtracks on Bid to Stop $100K Fine | Politico
The Trump administration is withdrawing its request that a federal judge reconsider the $100,000 fine she imposed for violating a court order on student loan collection. The administration says it can’t yet be sure whether it’s in “full compliance” with that order.
Trump Nominee Worked on Illegal Plan to Deny Help to Scam Victims | MSNBC
Rachel Maddow reports on a memo that shows that controversial Donald Trump judicial nominee Steven Menashi helped craft an illegal plan to deny debt relief to victims of a scammy for-profit college.
Appeals Court Nominee Shaped DeVos’s Illegal Loan Forgiveness Effort | New York Times
A judicial nominee slated for a key Senate committee vote on Thursday helped devise an illegal Education Department effort to use private Social Security data to deny debt relief to thousands of students cheated by their for-profit colleges, according to a memo obtained by The New York Times.
Education Department Pleads with Federal Judge to Reconsider $100,000 Fine | Washington Post
The Education Department is asking a federal judge who slapped a $100,000 fine on the agency for violating an order to stop collecting loan payments from former Corinthian Colleges students to reconsider the sanctions. The motion filed Friday did not seek to reverse the contempt of court order that Magistrate Judge Sallie Kim of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California imposed on Education Secretary Betsy DeVos for violating the preliminary injunction.
Column: In Corinthian Colleges Fiasco, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ Actions Define ‘Contempt’ | LA Times
As is true of many legal concepts, “contempt of court” can be inexact in its definitions or implications. But that doesn’t seem to be the case when it comes to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and her department’s treatment of thousands of students defrauded by the for-profit company Corinthian Colleges.
The Worst Trump Cabinet Member? You Picked a Real Winner | New York Times
The results are in, people, and it’s a landslide. Your choice for Worst Trump Cabinet Member is … Attorney General William Barr! Barr was cited for multiple non-achievements. There was his misrepresentation of the findings of the Mueller report. And the decision to respond to Robert Mueller’s warning about Russian intervention in American elections by — as one voter put it — “opening investigations into the investigators.”
Collecting Debt from Defrauded Students Fits Right Into Betsy DeVos’s Ideology | Washington Post
Last week, a federal court held Education Secretary Betsy DeVos in contempt for continuing to collect debt from people defrauded by for-profit colleges in violation of a court order. Under the Obama administration, the federal government had released students from their obligation to repay these loans.