James Runcie, the head of the agency in charge of federal student loans at the U.S. Department of Education, resigned in protest when he was directed to testify in support of Betsy DeVos’ policies before Congress.
DeVos has been shifting the Department’s policies to favor debt collection agencies, not students.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Finally, some good news!
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The Daily Kos, while worthwhile, basically functions as a clipping service for me. Inside the links are links to original source.
Progressive teacher running in VA
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/5/24/1665550/-Larry-Barnett-for-Virginia-House-of-Delegates-Turn-District-27-Blue
First thought is charter school – either way, horrifying
Edu – NC – Girl With 4.4 GPA Suspended, Threatened w/ Expulsion – Over A Shirt
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/5/23/1665364/-NC-Girl-With-4-4-GPA-Suspended-Threatened-With-Expulsion-Over-A-Shirt
I think I posted this before, but just in case
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/5/12/1661737/-Democrats-pour-millions-into-buying-LAUSD-seats-for-the-Betsy-DeVos-agenda
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Hi Diane. The link in your article is pointing to the earlier Bush story, not the topic of this post.
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This is the correct link.
Will fix.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2017/05/24/federal-student-aid-chief-quits-warning-of-management-issues-under-devos/?utm_term=.ea244545e05b
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Thanks!
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DeVos never borrowed a dime in her life, but she is “qualified” to administer the program. She intends to eliminate the loan forgiveness program which is already mired in controversy. It seems some agencies have told young people that working in some agencies qualify for loan forgiveness. Young people then work under this assumption. Then the DOE arbitrarily sends out letters telling the young people their agency no longer qualifies for loan forgiveness, even those that have worked in the same agencies for several of the ten years of commitment. A group of these young workers are now suing the DOE.
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The playing field has been tilting in favor of lenders for a very long time; DeVos is just seeing how far it can tilt before the beans spill.
But I am heartened to hear that there are government officials who still have enough integrity to resign in protest. Wish more would do so (and would have been doing so for the past 40 years).
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A good man left and she will fill the position with one of her minions. People like her have no shame, and we should be ashamed to have her in government.
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This is the ugly brown lining to the cloud, unfortunately. They want you gone.
Same thing happens with teachers:
Experienced Teacher: “I can’t represent this anymore! I’m retiring!”
Administrator: “Good riddance. I can hire two newbies at your salary.”
No experience necessary. Just read the script and run the program.
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I thank you, James Runcie, for your integrity.
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Good for him. She’s a POS.
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Maybe more people who serve the people in all US Government Agencies should follow the example set by Mr. Runcie and resign. I don’t have any actual facts but I would bet that there are many, many government employees who are required to tell half truths or out right lies about what is going on in our government. It is time for more of them to stand up and be counted.
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Unless I am mistaken DeVos was seeking a policy of having only one “loan servicer” a monopoly, rather that several competing for the outrageous payouts in this program. In any case, I hope the person who resigned did so for reasons that he can live with and also find another job.
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The student loan program always did favor collection if you consider that it can be collected from relatives AFTER your death. The problem I always encountered with the loans was that people never really got the concept that it was a LOAN, NOT a grant, gift, etc. To many schools gloss over this point in their pursuit of the “student dollars”.
The entire idea of paying it back got further muddied as some people started calling for “free” education. The sad reality then becomes … well if someone else will get it free, why should I PAY.
The entire loan process needs updating, as well as addressing the financial “war chests” being immassed by the schools from those loans to students.
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Well I guess Runcie should make the honor roll for standing up for decency and doing the right thing. One can only imagine who will replace him… a loan shark???
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Michael Hudson
Student debt…Another NINJA (No Income/No Job/Assets) drain.
“Now we only have one kind of NINJA left, and those are students. Student loans have been the most rapidly growing loans in the country. They’re no about $1.3 trillion, more than credit card loans, more than most other kinds of loans. Everybody knows that students are not able to earn enough to repay them, because default rates on student loans are going way up. They’re not going up on mortgages. They’re falling on mortgages – home mortgages – but they’re rising on student loans.
But the banks knew that they couldn’t pay and the government knew that they couldn’t pay, so the government made a sweetheart deal with the banks: “You can make all the loans to students you want. You can lend them as much money for any education, even for junk education, for junk colleges, or for-profit colleges like Trump’s college, and we know that the students are going to default, but we’re going to guarantee your loans and we’ll guarantee a higher rate of interest than you can make on any other loan, because we know these loans are risky. We know they won’t pay, but the government will take all the risk and we’ll pay you as if you were taking the risk and as if you were making a real loan, thinking you’d get repaid.”
The whole student loan scandal is a corrupt. It shows the degree to which the universities and the government loan system have been taken over by banks writing the loans to give themselves a free ride at public expense.
SHARMINI PERIES: Michael, the federal government already guarantees student loans, so when they default on these loans, does paying it back come out of the public purse?
MICHAEL HUDSON: Yes. Not only paying back the loan, but paying the loan with enormous interest, higher than the banks can get on any other kind of loan, and very heavy penalty fees, so the banks are basically cleaning up on these. The ultimate beneficiaries, if you can call them beneficiaries, are the universities, because the basic principle in real estate that we learned in 2008 was that a house is worth whatever a bank is going to lend. Well, the same thing is true for education.
An education is worth however much a bank is going to lend against it. The bank will lend everything that it costs, because there’s no risk, there’s no need for the banks to ask whether this is a junk education? Is this an educational loan that the student is really going to be able to get a job from? Or is it a Trump University loan or a for-profit university loan that is not really preparing the student for making enough money at all? And does the student have a choice?
What’s happened is the price of education has gone way, way up because banks are basically funding an enormous growth in the price that universities can charge for an education.”
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