Democrats Vote to Overturn DeVos Rule, Protect Defrauded Students

Today, House Democrats voted to overturn Secretary DeVos’ cruel decision to lessen the debt relief available to students who have been defrauded.

Debt relief for student victims of fraud seems like a no brainer. But not for the Trump administration. Here’s a look at how we got here:

In December, the Department of Education made it more difficult for students who were defrauded by their colleges to have their loans forgiven.

Washington Post: “Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is doubling down on a controversial policy of granting partial debt relief to students defrauded by their colleges, despite ongoing legal challenges and a congressional inquiry… Higher-education experts warn the new formula could result in substantially less loan cancellation than the previous plan.”

To do so, DeVos overruled her own staff and claimed that defrauded students at a defunct college had somehow “received a valuable education.”

DeVos: “I think there are many students that received a valuable education, just like they do from many other institutions. The question is what students among them were financially harmed.”

New York Times: “[DeVos] rebuffed questions about an investigation by career staff, unveiled in January 2017 memos published by NPR on Wednesday, that concluded that Corinthian students deserved full loan forgiveness because they received no educational benefit.”

DeVos took a page out of Trump’s playbook and blamed the Obama administration.

New York Times: “Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Thursday vigorously defended her decision to grant partial or no loan relief to tens of thousands of students who were misled by for-profit colleges, blaming the Obama administration for overpromising debt relief.”