Senator Patty Murray's office issued the following yesterday:
Senator Murray: “Now it’s up
to Secretary DeVos to do the right thing and immediately begin
discharging outstanding loans in full from students who were cheated,
defrauded, or left in the lurch, and to stop putting lobbyists and shady
for-profit colleges ahead of the students and borrowers she is supposed
to work for”
ICYMI: In 2017,
Senator Murray Denounced Secretary DeVos’ Decision to Put Predatory
Colleges Before Thousands of Students in Washington State Who Were
Cheated by Corinthian Colleges – MORE HERE
(Washington, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Senator
Patty Murray (D-WA), top Democrat on the Senate education committee,
released the following statement in response to the implementation of a
new regulation on “borrower defense” which went into effect today after a
federal judge struck down attempts from both Trump Education Secretary
Betsy DeVos and a for-profit college trade group to delay the rule.
“Building on the ruling that Secretary
DeVos’ actions to delay relief to students and borrowers was illegal,
the same federal court has now cleared the path for those who have been
cheated or defrauded by predatory for-profit colleges to get the relief
they’re entitled to.”
“Now it’s up to Secretary DeVos to do the
right thing and immediately begin discharging outstanding loans in full
from students who were cheated, defrauded, or left in the lurch, and to
stop putting lobbyists and shady for-profit colleges ahead of the
students and borrowers she is supposed to work for.
“As the court made clear, the Department
must act swiftly to discharge the loans of students from closed schools
like Corinthian Colleges, provide full relief to more than 100,000
borrowers who have been waiting for an answer, and ban predatory college
behavior like forced arbitration.”
Today’s ruling marks a victory against a series
of stall tactics by Secretary DeVos to delay providing relief to
borrowers that they are owed under law. In Washington state
alone, nearly 5,700 residents and out-of-state students attending
school in Washington state fell victim to the predatory practices of
Corinthian's Everest, Heald, and WyoTech campuses in 2015 and may be
eligible for immediate debt relief. The Department halted the processing
of claims from tens of thousands of borrowers, repeatedly delayed the
2016 “borrower defense” rule from going into effect, tried to provide
“partial relief” to borrowers which was later blocked by a federal court, and abandoned the rules altogether for a proposal that
would effectively end debt relief to cheated and defrauded students.
Following the collapse of for-profit giants Corinthian Colleges and ITT
Technical Institute, thousands of students have been left with a useless
education and massive amounts of debt. Recently-released data
secured by Senators Murray and Durbin forced the Trump Administration
to publicly reveal that more than 100,000 students still await relief,
including more than 3,400 students in Washington state. These students
and tens of thousands more who were impacted by closed schools now have a
chance to get the help they deserve if Secretary DeVos swiftly
implements the court’s decision.
