18 states sue education secretary
DeVos yanked rule protecting students with college loans
USA TODAY
A coalition of 18 states and the District of Columbia on Thursday sued the Education Department and Secretary Betsy DeVos for rescinding Obama-era rules aimed at protecting students from predatory colleges.
The “borrower defense” rule, which was scheduled to be effective July 1, allows student loan borrowers to apply for loan forgiveness if they were defrauded by for-profit schools. It also largely prohibits schools that participate in the federal student loan program from forcing students to use arbitration to settle legal disputes and waive their class-action rights.
The states’ complaint alleges that the Education Department violated federal law by rescinding the rules, which were finalized by the Obama administration in November.
The Education Department “effectively canceled a duly promulgated regulation without soliciting, receiving, or responding to any comment from any stakeholder or member of the public, and without engaging in a public deliberative process,” according to the states’ complaint.
The Trump administration has been clear about wanting to eliminate what it considers to be burdensome regulations for companies seeking regulatory relief. Since taking the helm at the Education Department earlier this year, DeVos, a proponent of charter schools and for-profit schools, has been chipping away at the student loan rules.
“Since Day One, Secretary DeVos has sided with for-profit school executives against students and families drowning in unaffordable student loans,” said Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, who led the lawsuit.
Regulators in the Obama administration particularly focused their enforcement on fraudulent for-profit schools that charge thousands in peryear tuition and fees while advertising misleading or inaccurate statements about graduates’ prospects for finding jobs in their fields of study.
Other state attorneys general joining the lawsuit are from California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and the District of Columbia.