Led by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healy, the state attorneys general in 19 states sued Betsy zdezvos, who is failing to protect the interests of college students who are preyed upon by for-profit colleges, like the defunct Trump University.
This Secretary has carved out a unique role as the defender of corporate interests against the rights of students. Her motto might as well be “Let the predators prey!” In her mind, “preyer” is always a good thing, and when the powerful prey on the weak, well, as Betsy would say, “That’s life. Get used to it.”
Mercedes Schneider blogged about it here.
The Washington Post reported:
“A group of 19 state attorneys general is suing Education Secretary Betsy DeVos for delaying an overhaul of rules to erase the federal student debt of borrowers defrauded by colleges.
“With no notice, with no opportunity for comment … the DeVos team is trying to cancel this rule,” Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, who is leading the lawsuit, said on a call with reporters Thursday. “It is important that we take action where we see activity by the federal government, Secretary DeVos and the Department of Education, that is unsustainable, unfair and illegal.”
“The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court on Thursday, accuses the Education Department of violating federal law by halting updates to a regulation known as the borrower defense to repayment. The rule, which dates to the 1990s, wipes away federal loans for students whose colleges used illegal or deceptive tactics to get them to borrow money to attend. The Obama administration revised it last year to simplify the claims process and shift more of the cost of discharging loans onto schools.
“Before the changes could take effect July 1, DeVos suspended them last month and said she would convene a new rulemaking committee to rewrite the borrower defense regulation, reviving a process that took nearly two years to complete. Proponents of the revised rule were livid that DeVos made a unilateral decision without soliciting or receiving input from stakeholders or the public.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Betsy DeVos is currently a billionaire philanthropist. She and her husband have extensive holdings in the RDV Corporation, a private investment and management firm.
According to The Washington Post, the firm is connected to a student loan debt collection agency contracted with the U.S. Department of Education. What’s more, 23 percent of the collection agency’s revenue is derived from its work with the Department of Education.
Words matter. The DeVos family is not philanthropic; it is strategic.
Thank you. Let us name things accurately. You are so right. Strategic is it.
who signed the contract…..Obama administration, or Trump?
DeVos is deVoted to $$$$$, not students.
Good job, state AG’s. At the very least it will put young people on notice that the federal government is not a reliable source of information and they should look elsewhere for solid advice on borrowing for college.
NOT in your corner, 18 year olds. Find a responsible adult and ask that person. These people are just another group selling you something.
The for-profits won. They lobbied and lobbied and lobbied and delayed this rule and now it will never go in.
Young people should be told they have to protect themselves. That’s the truth and they need that information. They don’t even have a fighting chance as long as we keep telling them this fairy tale that any of these people are working on their behalf. It’s open season on ripping off 18 year olds. Act accordingly.
This report, which I posted a year ago, tells you everything you need to know about why the for-profit Colleges win, despite their dismal performance:
Click to access Halperin-Friends-In-High-Places.pdf
Thanks again for this one, Diane. For PROFIT colleges are (fill in the blanks).
This is an amazing report. Factoid that I did not find.
Dr. Sharon Robinson, the CEO of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) is leaving that job this month. She was appointed the the board of directors of Corinthian Colleges, while also serving as CEO of AACTE. https://aacte.org/news-room/aacte-in-the-news/293-corinthian-colleges-names-dr-sharon-p-robinson-to-board-of-directors
Dr. Robinson, the ultimate DC insider during the Obama administration, made very positive comments about the nomination of Betsy DeVos, even before DeVos’ lack of credentials were on the table.
Robinson’s ties to teacher education have been severed, finally.
She will serve as Vice-Chair of the foundation that bears her father’s name: Baseball player Jackie Robinson. http://edprepmatters.net/2016/12/aacte-statement-on-devos-nomination-for-u-s-secretary-of-education/
Laura, are you sure that Sharon Robinson is Jackie Robinson’s daughter? I am not. Maybe two people with same name?
“Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who made a career of promoting local control of education, has signaled a surprisingly hard-line approach to carrying out an expansive new federal education law, issuing critical feedback that has rattled state school chiefs and conservative education experts alike.
President Barack Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act in 2015 as the less intrusive successor to the No Child Left Behind law, which was maligned by many in both political parties as punitive and prescriptive. But in the Education Department’s feedback to states about their plans to put the new law into effect, it applied strict interpretations of statutes, required extensive detail and even deemed some state education goals lackluster.”
I don’t know why anyone is surprised an ed reformer adopted a “punitive” approach to public schools. Of course it’s punitive. ESSA applies to PUBLIC schools.
The whole movement is relentlessly and exclusively negative regarding PUBLIC schools. That defines them and has for 20 years.
I’m not surprised at all that the US Department of Education spent the last 6 months promoting charters and vouchers and now will spend the next six months scolding public schools. It’s what they do. They offer absolutely nothing positive for public schools haven’t since they were captured by this “movement” so for the last 17 years.
The same ed reformers who have proven themselves absolutely incapable of regulating for-profit colleges ask us to believe they will regulate 30,000 privately-run charter schools in all 50 states.
You have to be an idiot to believe that. If they can’t manage this they certainly can’t manage that.
I signed a letter and asked her to resign.
“zdezvos”
This is not a typo. It reveals another Zombie twice as bad as the Walton Zombies.
Lloyd,
Whenever you see the random z, think zombie.
Does that mean there are still 19 states that the Koch brothers and the Walton family do not own yet?
Lloyd,
The Koch brothers own the other 31 states