Just when you think Betsy DeVos, like Trump, has hit rock bottom, she does another utterly vile deed to harm vulnerable students.
Get this: in the middle of a global pandemic and an economic meltdown, with millions of people out of work, the DeVos Department of Education ilegally seized $2.2 billion from students who were in debt.
Adam S. Minsky wrote in Forbes:
In response to a class action lawsuit filed by student loan borrowers, the U.S. Department of Education disclosed that it had intercepted and seized over $2.2 billion in tax refunds owed to a million student loan borrowers, in violation of the CARES Act.
The CARES Act suspended all collections on defaulted federally-held student loans from March 13, 2020 until September 30, 2020. The Act mandates that involuntary collections efforts by the U.S. Department of Education and U.S. Department of Treasury — including the interception and seizure of tax refunds — are to be suspended.
Thanks to G.F. Brandenburg for the lead.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This is a continuation of Devos’ mean spirited “punish the free-loading borrower” mindset. I doubt if the students will win this if Barr is involved at all, even at the margins.
https://www.npr.org/2019/11/15/777262292/betsy-devos-and-the-high-stakes-standoff-over-student-loan-forgiveness
Cruella DeVos believes she is above the law. She does not care than millions of working people have been furloughed due to the pandemic. She does not care that many working families are one paycheck away from being food insecure, and she certainly does not care if children go hungry or become homeless because their parent’s CARES Act money was seized by the DOE.
Maybe that’s where my $500 tax refund went, because I filed early but it never arrived and I’ve heard nothing about it.
I thought I would get my refund this year because, although I owe back taxes to the IRS, they finally recognized that it’s an extreme economic hardship for me to pay them any more money, so last summer, they declared me uncollectible.
That occurred only after they took ALL of my refunds for many years and ALL of my paychecks from one of my jobs for about 5 YEARS, which they could do because all faculty were hired as independent contractors at that school. Otherwise, when you’re a regular employee, they can only take 15% of your income, so at the same time, the Department of Education garnished 15% of my paychecks at the other school where I work. But then Social Security sent ALL of my retirement checks to IRS for almost a year, too, and ultimately that’s why I became homeless while being retired and working two jobs.
After IRS finally classified me as a hardship case, last fall, the Department of Education stopped garnishing my paychecks. I consider myself VERY fortunate for that, but I continue to wonder how long it will last, as I’m very afraid of them going after my Social Security…
I am sorry for your predicament. Even when people file for bankruptcy, they generally cannot discharge student loan or IRS debt. When companies file for bankruptcy, many of them are allowed to change the terms of their pension obligations. Lobbyists are looking out for the interests of corporations, and our elected representatives serve corporations. They have no problem ignoring the plight of working people in debt.
Thank you, Retired Teacher!
I think it’s awfully short sighted of the government to not permit working class people to discharge student loans and IRS debts. Since the feds and states have records of how little money we’ve earned throughout our careers, they can see that we’ve never been rolling in dough and they can anticipate that at retirement age, we probably never will be striking it rich, too.
After trying to fight off becoming homeless for three years, including by getting my second job and selling off virtually everything of value that I owned, I lost that battle, but I didn’t complain until it actually happened. That’s because I had been trying all along to find a pro bono lawyer who would help me. It was to no avail though, so I ended up having to deal with the government myself.
I felt really lucky last summer when the IRS basically acknowledged it when I told them that the reason why I became homeless was because 3 different federal agencies had been taking my money for years, ALL AT THE SAME TIME. I described how hard it is for homeless people to get back on their feet and why, such as needing a co-signer because landlords don’t want to rent to people who were evicted. Plus, I mentioned that since I don’t make all that much money to begin with, probably no amount of work that I do could keep me afloat AND enable me to pay off debts.
I learned that sometimes when you deal with real people who work in government, you might find that they are not heartless and you can get through to them. I just don’t know how long their decisions will hold over time. And since I’m talking about three government agencies with the power to control my purse strings, at a time when my health is naturally declining, that really scares me.
“In response to a class action lawsuit filed by student loan borrowers,”
I just want to point out how difficult is for the public to have to keep suing the US Department of Education to get them to follow the law.
It’s an outrageous burden they are putting on the public. The people THEY ARE PAYING in the Trump Administration refuse to do their jobs properly so what that means for the public is these folks have to spend time, energy and money SUING them.
How many lawyers are these students currently paying at the US Department of Education? They have to pay them AND their own lawyers?
That the US Department of Education has decided that their work is NOT to serve students but instead to act as some kind of crazy nemesis that students have to sue every three months is outrageous. The US Department of Education now sees their mission as contra to STUDENTS? That is NUTS.
If DeVos spent less time bashing public schools and public school students on Right wing media outlets and more time doing her job perhaps some of these students could get the services they’re paying for out of the US Department of Education.
There seems to be a basic misunderstanding in the Trump Administration on who works for whom. They’re not doing us a favor accepting those paychecks. They’re supposed to be providing some value to the public.
“Acoalition of Ohio’s largest urban school districts has joined school officials around the country in opposing U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’s plan to send federal coronavirus funds to private school students rather than high-poverty public school pupils.
The Ohio 8 Coalition urged Gov. Mike DeWine in a letter last month to award federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act money to schools based on poverty levels, saying their schools would lose out on millions of dollars under DeVos’s plan, which calls for the money to be distributed to private schools based on enrollment, without considering family income.”
Ed reformers- working hard every day to screw public school students out of funding.
This “movement” provides absolutely no benefit to public school students or families and we employ thousands of them in federal, state and local government. They simply don’t serve children who attend public schools. They return no value to 90% of students and families.
We should really consider hiring people who aren’t ideologically opposed to our schools and students. This is not working out well for students who attend the unfashionable public schools.
What I love about ed reform is they don’t even pretend to offer any benefits to public school students or families. It’s such an echo chamber that they brag about this:
“That said, the worst-case read of my results is that even if charter schools did hamper traditional public schools, those schools have responded in ways that at least counterbalance that negative impact. Under no scenario, however, can it be interpreted from the data that exposure to a highly concentrated charter school sector systematically destroys traditional public schools.”
Got that? You’re apparently paying thousands of public employees at all levels of government and the BEST they offer is they won’t “systematically destroy traditional public schools”.
That’s their BEST offer. And for this we’re supposed to continue paying them. There isn’t even a consideration in the “movement” that they perhaps could improve or somehow benefit public schools. That’s off the table. Way too high a bar.
No one should accept this. You can do much, much better than a group of people who assure you they won’t destroy your kids schools while pursuing their ideological agenda.
YES: Where we are with Trump and DeVos: there isn’t even a consideration that they could benefit public schools.
Over many centuries there have been discussions as to whether Satan is a man or a woman. I am beginning to believe that DeVos is Trump’s companion Satan on this planet. In other words, Mrs Betsy (DeVos) Satan with Mr. Donald J. (Trump) Satan. Both low life are totally evil.
I want to see DeVos behind bars. She is a vile woman who has never wanted for anything in her life. She is what is utterly wrong with our society.
Where is the oversight committee? The Departments under Trump are “raping” the country from within. It will take years to correct the damage done and never will be able to get back all the money “stolen”.
As bad as this is, who do you think will ultimately pay the class action settlement?