Salon wrote about a
A federal judge on Wednesday ruled that former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos will have to testify in a class action lawsuit over her handling of the Education Department’s student debt loan forgiveness program.
Judge William Alsup said “exceptional circumstances” warrant issuing DeVos a subpoena, a move that goes against both Devos’ and the Biden administration’s requests to excuse her from providing testimony.
The lawsuit, which has been brought on behalf of about 160,000 borrowers, alleges that the plaintiffs were defrauded by for-profit colleges and then neglected by the federal government.
The controversy dates back to 2018, when the Department of Education unexpectedly stopped making decisions on “student-loan borrower-defense applications,” in which students could petition the department to have their debt federally relieved if they believed their colleges had misled them….
Theresa Sweet, a leading plaintiff in the suit, toldForbes in March: “Nearly 200,000 defrauded students are still waiting for justice, due in no small part to the malicious efforts of Betsy DeVos and the for-profit education lackeys with which she surrounded herself as Secretary of Education. She utterly failed in her duty to protect students from harm and to hold scam schools accountable.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Diane So glad the judge in the case decided against reaching for some sort of privilege. Welcome to the world of legal justice and social fairness, Betsy; and be sure to put your socks on, one at a time. CBK
Good! Betsy DeVoodoo is a criminal.
May I comment about this? ________________________________
Yes
This is freaking awesome. Of course, DItzy DeVoid will have the best attorneys advising her. Still, great that she will have to account for herself. What a thoroughly awful person.
DeVos defends for-profit education because doing so is completely consistent with the ed reform theory.
If “schools” and “education” is just paying contractors for educational services then why would be for-profits be excluded?
They should all support for-profits. There’s no reason to exclude them in the ed reform vision of parents shopping for educational services to purchase with a voucher.
They’ll eventually drop their objections to for-profits, just like they all dropped their objections to vouchers.
If “choice” is the only thing you care about and it’s the grounding of your whole philosophy then educational consumers (formerly known as “students”) shouldn’t be denied access to any provider.
A lot of ed reform is incoherent. At some point they’ll have to align the theory with the practice and for profits will absolutely be included. They get around it now anyway by contracting out everything but the “charter” itself. The line will disappear.
How much does anyone want to bet that Betsy the Brutal will do the same thing she did before when questioned on the stand. She will ignore what she was asked and attempt to switch topics or she will keep repeating, “I don’t remember.”
Why did Biden want her excused from testimony?
Thinking the same thing, I try to wrap my head around that. Why would Biden side with DeVos? The same reason Cory Booker sided with DeVos all those years? To protect Secretary Cardona when he causes similar harm to students, like robbing them of the right to a fully funded local public school? Because neoliberal Democrats are in bed with corporate-libertarian Republican billionaires and have been so for decades? Who knows? Who knows…
It’s not liberals versus conservatives anymore. It’s rich versus everyone else.
leftcoasteacher I guess we won’t really know, but the first thought I had was that he was aware of what the courts would do and was just playing the social/diplomatic card because he could without having influence on the court? CBK
Holding Betsy accountable would set a precedent that the Democrats do not want snapping back and hitting them in the face.
SomeDAM NOT “holding Betsy accountable” would ALSO set a precedent that the Democrats do not want snapping back and hitting them in the face.”
I would be surprised if Joe Biden tried to interfere with the Judicial System, however. CBK
When was any president ever concerned about interfering with the judicial process?
SomeDAM About Biden interfering with the Judicial process–he actually stated that in one of his speeches/or/press conferences post-election. Sorry, I don’t have the date . . . just my memory of it. It was so different from Trump’s fascist behaviors and, of course, an implication of the separation of powers that Biden is so aware of. CBK
If Biden was actually concerned with not interfering with the judicial process, he would not have sided with Devos to begin with.
SomeDAM Why did Biden “side” with DeVos? My GUESS is that the separation of powers doctrine allows politicians in general to be social/politicians without following the logic of behavior in other social or familial situations; or implying they will impinge on those separations. He knows he is restricted and unlike Trump, adheres to those restrictions.
I’m just guessing, however. FWIW. CBK
Devos flouted judicial rulings throughout her reign as Secretary.
SomeDAM Yes, DeVos overplayed her power. However, Biden “supporting” her, it seems to me, is the same thing as Biden saying to Netanyahu that he (Biden) didn’t agree with anything Netanyahu said, but Biden loved him anyway. CBK
Put her in the hot-seat and watch her squirm!
I’m afraid with resources she has at her beck and call (human and $) that she’ll never see the inside of a courtroom UNLESS overwhelming support comes from the Biden administration. THAT is where our power needs to be concentrated!
And what of all those students defrauded in PUBLIC colleges? Many students forced by their circumstances to file for federal Student Aid and enrolled in medical studies are coerced into filing fraudulent FAFSA applications with the US Dept Of Education in-order to pay tuition for classes not related to their intended ‘academic program of study’ because school officials deliberately ‘overbook’ their ‘chosen’ classes.
A Nursing, Physical Therapy or Radiology student may enroll, complete (satisfactorily) all their classroom work only to be denied entry to the ‘Clinical’ classes in their local healthcare facilities – school officials having enrolled twice as many students as they have seats in the class.
This keeps the federal funds flowing into public colleges – but delays students’ career goals while loading them with ever more debt.Think the USD Of Ed would be interested? – No. Even the USD Of Ed’s own ‘OIG’ excuses this fraud with ‘Well, that’s their policy”