The New York Times reports that under Secretary Betsy DeVos, the US Department of Education denied almost 130,000 claims from students defrauded by for-profit colleges who were seeking cancellation of their student loans. According to Education Department documents filed in federal court, the department’s system for reviewing claims prized speed above all else, and often involved denying claims without explanation and without regard to earlier findings by the department itself about schools’ wrongdoing.
Eileen Connor, Legal Director for the Project on Predatory Student Lending, which represents a class of more than 200,000 borrowers who applied for relief, notes that the system for processing applications established under DeVos remains in place, and that defrauded students have “no hope of prevailing until the department dismantles its assembly-line approach and gives applications the consideration they deserve.”