Compare the diasterouse tenure of Sec. DeVos with the accomplishments of former SoEs Margaret Spellings and Arne Dunkin.
It's easy to see which is interested in fostering our education system and who represents wealthy special interests solely focused on profit.
11
Betsy DeVos's family is in the student loan business. What further proof of conflict of interest in necessary than this latest maneuver?
13
This is another example of an ultra rich person showing absolute contempt for the poor. This hostility is thousands of years old. What is it about?
11
And to think that Bill Clinton's shenanigans got people so outraged that he was impeached. I guess that makes Trump and his minions little lambs.
7
If anyone should be locked up, it would be her.
6
If you were looking for an example of how being immensely rich doesn’t guarantee you a meaningful and successful life, you’d be hard put to come up with a better one than Betsy DeVos.
18
Split the difference: borrowers should at least pay back the principal, denying the schools & lenders any incentive to continue profiting from borrower delusions/entitlement to higher-paid careers.
Many for-profit schools do not conduct real-time, in-person or live video conference call interviews, rigorous standards aptitude tests (including writing a multi-paragraph essay on the spot, or for trades/artisanal work, demonstrating tasks like sketching, sewing, etc.). They also don't do background checks that could reveal whether an applicant is a felon (thus barring them from certain professions) or have a spotty work history (strong hints of behavioral/personality/learning disorders &/or substance abuse issues that have gone undiagnosed, undertreated, etc.).
Why should taxpayer money guarantee loans to pseudo-schools' tuition and ill-suited students' living expenses (i.e. when loans also cover the students' rent/mortgage, child care, food, transport costs, etc.)?
Sadly speaking, at least some of the borrowers are products of lax parenting & K-12 schools w/c wrongly taught them that the job market will always be forgiving & accommodating of their unchecked neuropsychological &/or character flaws.
I've encountered diploma mill alumni (armed w/ their worthless degrees) w/ practically 3rd grade level reading comprehension, writing, speaking, & numeracy skills, plus the childish, whiny attitudes to boot!
The schools, lenders, & students have all ripped taxpayers off!
5
@FairXchange
Can we dare think that Trump/DeVos' idea will help him reduce the money he owes due to his own fraudulent for-profit "school"?
Also, Ms. DeVos' brother, Erik Prince (founder of Black Water), could probably use some of that money saved.
Just wondering.
7
De Vos is a living advertisement against Christianity. Her attitude does nothing but justify the wholesale abandon of religious practice amongst young people in America today.
8
What a collection of corrupt, disgusting people the Republican party is. Why do people who can barely make ends meet continue to vote for these con-artists, putting them into powerful positions where they can further enrich themselves at our expense.
17
Betsy DeVos is another soulless human who isn't fit to teach the A.B.C's and 1,2,3's. She is a Business Woman whose bizarre concept of public education should have been a red alarm for Republicans- but they didn't care.
The "next" Democratic-Controlled Congress needs to pass veto-proof legislation allowing Student Loan Dept (from whatever source) to be dischargeable in bankruptcy just as all other debt.
Punishing one class of debt holders is un-American.
18
The current Secretary of Education does not want to make America smarter. She want more gullible customers for her AmWay Business.
15
The root of the problem is allowing government back student loans to these institutions. If a for-profit institution is truly competitive in the higher ed marketplace, then investors would capitalize these institutions sufficiently such that these subsidies are not necessary or fewer subsidies will do. But these flimsy businesses would not exist were it not for these federally subsidized loans. If only the Betsy DeVoses of the world could understand that the taxpayer ultimately is lining the pockets of these for-profit school shareholders. Or likely she and her ilk do, and simply approve of this ongoing exploitation of hard working taxpayers.
13
Many of these "schools" were set up with the express purpose of getting students to take out loans to pay for the "courses." From the start it was understood that they were paper mills only milking the loan system, often federally backed, in order to make money off fraudulent "degrees." The best solution is to prosecute and put people like DeVos in jail. Remuneration should come from the "schools" and the executives who made fortunes thru fraud. Best case scenario is that people like DeVose end up living in cardboard boxes under a freeway somewhere.
20
After November the congress will be able to stop this madness.
3
Betsy DeVos is out to make Betsy DeVos richer again.
The Republican Party is a business, and their goal is to make themselves richer, and they have no interest in doing what is best for the country.
They must be punished for their betrayal of country.
13
Should be no surprise since the family's money is from scamway...truly disgusting. At least she should have the decency to create PSA's to warn unsuspecting people. Scammers (like Amway) profit when people are un or ill informed. Look at who lied his way into the white house!!
12
And nothing quite keeps people ill informed like a poor education. Coincidence? I think not.
9
The appointment of this venal woman to the Department of Education has been an education in and of itself in corruption and contempt for the citizens of the United States.
23
Many are missing the big picture here regarding student loans, both federal and private. What’s being left out of this discussion are the "loan servicers" such as American Education Services (AES) and Navient, who have been willfully and with impunity defrauding hundreds of thousands of borrowers. Lawsuits have been brought against Navient by four State Attorneys General (New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Washington) for fraud and deceit, yet there is no relief in sight for defrauded borrowers. Navient and AES are both under the umbrella of the corrupt National Collegiate Trust (NCT) / Department of Education (DoE). The real student loan crisis is the one being manufactured by the NCT, Navient and AES. Going after the for profit colleges or even public universities for "misleading" students is all well and good, but the real fraud is with the banks and the loan servicers. The latest number on student loan debt is 1.2 trillion, and I can all but guarantee 75-80% of that is "interest". You can bet your last dollar that when this fraud and corruption collapses beneath its own weight these criminals will head to Washington for the same bailout the “mortgage crisis” criminals did in 2009. Unfortunately, the government of this country is so corrupt and so evil, it will do nothing but bail out the banks and loan servicers at the taxpayers expense. Heck, it ain't coming out of any politicians' pockets!
18
Because, you know, businesses should be able to do what ever they want, even if it involves fraud. This has been DeVios's entire life story - gets rich soley due to a family fortune built on a pyramid scheme and promoting fraudulent "schools."
16
The corporations now own all three branches of our government.
If we ever get our country back, I would love to see all of those who confirmed this administration’s band of corporate raiders held accountable for their part in an attack on our country.
The confirmation hearings clearly showed the criminal minds of all of these evil people, and yet they were confirmed.
It was always all about looting the country - all about the money. That’s all that these sociopaths care about.
The evidence is there, and they all should be found guilty and punished accordingly.
12
If a buy a car that turns out to be a lemon and that car was paid for with borrowed money I promised to repay, my obligate obligation. to repay the lender should not be forgiven.
More specifically, I should not expect other people (tax payers) to be force to pay all or part of my loan back.
If the car I buy with a loan has a severe engine failure, my issue is with the seller, not the lender.
I expect the root problem may be government backd loans to people who have not demonstrated credit worthiness.
John
2
And yet corporations are allowed to write off losses. And corporations with previous bankruptcy are allowed to borrow millions.
Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'
@John
If it makes it easier look at it more like a bailout like the $12 Billion Trump tried to throw to the farmers to cover his well thought out tariff initiative.
@John "my obligate obligation. to repay the lender should not be forgiven."
yes, but in your hypothetical you have recourse to have the car fixed and laws will help you if the dealer is a crook -and you can sue if necessary. The schools in question were frauds from the start. How does a student get a "fix" from a fraudster like a school? DeVos think it's just fine to have you pay off a loan for a known fraudster and have no recourse to any compensation for the fraud perpetrated. If they said the school has to pay the student back, that would be fine - full price, with interest on the loan. That really is the only fair thing to do. Remember. Trump ran such a school. DeVos is just like trump - a con person who is just in it for the money.
4
I think this plan expects a higher level of borrower understanding and financial skill than actually exists. They need to go back to the drawing board and get some better understanding and proceed from that.
They may be trying to reduce the number of borrowers - I expect it is huge and it's hard to identify after he fact the ones who were pushed into getting these loans as a profit-making ploy and those who did not understand that their goals would not result in a decent job.
Lots of people may be sorry they got that fine arts degree, for example, that they can't use and may want to claim deception as a way to get out of the debt they willingly chose to take on to pursue a dream.
2
Saving up to pay for those corporporate tax cuts. WINNING!
3
What she should do is make sure that the government is being paid back by the fraudulent Trump universities and leave the people who were defrauded alone!
I would like to see how that flies during the next cabinet meeting.
9
Simply put in all of trumpland now that Pruit is gone DeVos is the worst. May she be replaced before she can do more damage.
5
@Kevin
I respectfully disagree. trump is the worst. But DeVos runs a close second. She won't be replaced until trump is replaced.
2
In an administration that separates infants from parents it seems only natural that defrauded students should also be punished.
The only explanation for the general behavior of this wholly despicable rats nest of administrators is that they are afflicted with an underlying sadism that guides their perverse sense of authority.
18
I wonder if DeVos has ever met a "hardworking taxpayer." Seems unlikely.
8
There's nothing worse than having student loans. They travel with you for years like a mortgage payment after you have hopefully found a decent job. Surprisingly, many students are sucked into the belief that liberal arts still provide a foundation for a job, like history. Maybe. Without something practical, however, like computer science, chemistry, or a trade, it's going to be a long, long time to pay off these loans.
The answer rests with working your way through community college or trade school, before moving onto state college. The other solution is for government to provide universal education through college paid by our taxes. It's shameful that Betsy DeVos fails to solve the real problems of funding today's higher education. She could make a difference at this time instead of following conman Trump whose main contribution to society will once again go towards the wealthy with reduction of personal taxes. Students need to vote Republicans out of office if they want any relief with their student loans.
4
@David Michael
I have a Masters in Art History and do very well thankyouverymuch.
3
@David Michael The job market for any degree, even a "practical" one, can dry up by graduation. Ask anyone who graduated into the Great Recession.
6
This administration really seems determined to create a permanent underclass. Through cuts in healthcare, education and a return to the incarceration policies of the failed past, we are well on our way to that outcome.
9
"Let them eat debt!"
-- The Notorious Betsy DeVos
Her family's $40 million yacht (one of 8 or 9 they own) was cast adrift on Huron by vandals yesterday. Thankfully, the 12 crew members onboard rescued it when they awoke. Phew!
With the safety of one of her yachts in jeopardy, I imagine it would be really hard for DeVos to concentrate on eviscerating defrauded, debt-ridden collegians.
Perhaps her husband's family and their business prowess might help. Maybe forming some sort of Amway-ish pyramid scheme could help the students out of this mess.
8
Ms. DeVos has no idea of what education is or is not. She is a very ignorant, silly woman who got her job by providing the Trump campaign thousands of dollars. That said, she is protecting her boss from his deceitful and closed Trump University. It is now a "buyer beware" situation in education. As we de-regulate areas of commerce in this country, we will see more of this type of attitude by those in government and power. Everyone ought to understand that victims of unfair, predatory practices (loans, housing, credit card, etc) will not be protected by regulations. Welcome to the unregulated capitalistic system where anything goes.
14
When the Oxford English Dictionary is revised, the most appropriate definitions for greed and incompetence would be DeVos. The woman is worthless, to say the least.
3
Like so many other areas of this "administration" this is the best Department of Education money can buy!
Obviously, she is all in for her rich fat cat friends. What a creepy person she is, IMHO. I'm pretty sure there's no legitimate reason for the existence of a "for profit" college to exist except as a scam. We certainly should not allow them to qualify for Federal loan guarantees.
13
@Mike Brandt
I attended a very prestigious for-profit Master's Program and it provided an exceptional education.
You are painting with a very broad brush and it is not helping.
1
There is a brief period for public commentary. If you are as incensed by this move as I am, express your viewpoint.
Make sure to contact your representatives as well. Staying silent and angry won't effect change.
7
How does Congress's recently ruling forbidding individuals getting together to form class action suits interplay with the Devos decree?
Does this mean that each student must on-their-own go up against the multimillion/billion dollar institutions in order to seek relief?
That would be counter to the Trump University lawsuit where students prevailed. Wouldn't it?
GOP mantra: Always protect the big guys at the expense of the little guys. Always!
13
This issue seems to have been spun up into a 'junk school' issue. Perhaps it is masking an even bigger problem: the dearth of jobs in the present economy. The schools that defrauded these students were pandering to the notion that education leads to employment. Many students swallowed that bait hook-line-and-sinker.
4
Betsy DeVos is both clueless and heartless. As an educator, I relish the day when she is no longer serving this administration. Her ignorance, poor judgement, and misguided biases are damaging and regressive. This article proves, once again, that Ms. DeVos is incapable of overseeing one of the most important Departments in our federal government.
12
Devos’ actions to help her for-profit friends and decimate average Americans are so blatant it’s as if she were wearing an arm band with a big middle finger pointed at middle class (or what’s left of it).
4
This is coming from a person that never had to worry about college debt or dept of any kind.
what has this sorry piece of humanity ever done for her fellow humans other than take advantage of them and discard them.
11
It isn't Betsy's fault. The Devil made Her do it. Whew! That was easy to clean up.
5
When you are as rich as Betsy De Vos is, issues like "debt relief" and "defrauded studentals" doesn't register. Why should it? It is highly unlikely that Ms. De Vos or any members of her family had ever had to face anything like that!
Ain't life grand! It is wonderful putting ultra rich people in charge of things...because you can always be sure they can directly relate to the average American citizen!
This is yet another example of Donald Trump's array of policies designed for make America great again! Hold on to you hats folks...more to follow, especially with the Midterms around the corner.
9
Betsy DeVos’ new policy, which makes it harder for students to get out of a bad-faith debt, is _exactly_ the kind of policy I would expect from someone whose boss _created_ a sham “university” and had to settle out of court for millions.
The total disregard for anything _decent_ by this entire administration makes one thing clear:
We _must_ regain control of Congress this November. This race to the depths of human depravity must be stopped.
12
The questions we aren’t asking are pretty simple: How does an education from a for-profit school stack up against a state-supported school? How many students get a degree online and cannot perform the work an employer requires?
I know a number of people who have degrees from online schools – though each of them had either an AS or BS from a brick-and-mortar school, worked in their field for years, and got their next degree (BS or MS) online.
I also know people who tried the brick-and-mortar schools and couldn't do the work.
Then there are people who got an online degree but couldn't get jobs in their chosen field.
Are there studies that compare the two education systems? Don’t we need data that will allow open, honest comparisons?
With good data, the prospective student could decide whether the online school offered any real value.
With good data, the government could decide whether to guarantee loans to schools that don’t offer real value.
With good data, students and lenders could make good decisions.
3
@Azalea Lover
For profit does not mean ONLY online! There are legit for-profit schools. I went to one for my Master's.
Cruella DeVos proposes to save $700 million by tightening the screws 'on' fake-educated' students, disregarding obvious fraud by for-profit "schools," and imposing a draconian burden of proof on the students to prove the 'otherwise apparent' fraud upon them … 'at the same time' forcing students to surrender privacy rights in their newly-structured-to-be-near-impossible effort to prove the otherwise obvious.
In any case, the $700 million won't be enough to 'cover' a single Fortune 500 company's sweepstakes award from the "Tax Reform [!!!] And Jobs [???] Act" -- but it may well be sufficient to 'fund' reimbursement of her senior staff for bonuses they lost when the for-profit schools they previously 'ran' saw 'themselves' soon to be proved as frauds by NY's Attorney General (and others?), and thus
'chose' to pay many millions in one or more 'settlements' that avoided precedential determination of their fraudulent practices.
1
DeVos was without morals or conscience from the start, but it's sad to see Lamar Alexander has become yet another victim of the Trump the soul destroyer.
2
Betsy DeVos is the "Shady Lady from Shady Lane."
The DeVos family is listed as the 88th richest in the world. Her father-in-law founded Amway, where Betsy's husband is the CEO; her brother ran the infamous Blackwater military contracting operation. Amway has been described as a ponzi scheme based on its false claims & emphasis on recruiting.
Betsy and husband are heavily invested in "Neurocore, some kind of therapy "business" based on "training the brain" to treat depression, anxiety, etc. The company has been under scrutiny and criticized for making false claims, whose conclusions are unproven, and methods questionable.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/30/us/politics/betsy-devos-neurocore-bra...
So the fraudulent, capitalist scammer Trump, of Trump University fame, appoints Betsy DeVos to head the Dept. of Education in Trump's gigantic government swampland.
Who better to rig the system in education in favor of rip off for-profit colleges that take advantage of students struggling to make a better life. But the job at these Scam-U schools is recruitment & please investors, but not quality education.
A long time ago, a friend told me his sister was a prostitute in Newark. But she wanted to make a better life for herself and became one of the DeVos's Amway recruits. About 8 months later, my friend told me his sister was out a whole lot of money she put into Amway; she despised the rip-off organization, and she went back to prostitution.
2
DeVos is a prime example of why we need better education in this country.
6
What do you expect from the wealthy? Protect the perps and attack the victims. Nothing new here, move along, nothing to see here, move along.
4
Cruella DeVos scores for the Oligarchy Party. Rigging the system in favor of her cronies and billionaire pals is particuarly heartless punishment she clearly enjoys. Now that she's metaphorically skinned and chained the poor souls who just want to better their lives with callous glee, she'll wear her coat of cruelty cackling all the way as we continue our ride down the Rabbit Hole known as DJT.
2
Betsy DeVoid, born into the Billionaire Prince family, married into the Billionaire DeVoid (Sc)Amway family. Never has so much been given to one with so little compassion for her fellow human beings. Oops, forgot that God herself anointed Betsy to prepare Earth for the second coming, my bad.
7
No one defaults on a student loan because they 'want' to; it's because after paying $20,000, $30,000, $50,000 or more for a college education — only to secure a job that pays minimum wage with no benefits — borrowers can't afford to repay the debt. DeVos, who has never struggled a day in her despicable life, knows nothing of the hardship of the young person trying to get a foothold in society. Like taking food from a baby or shelter from the shivering, DeVos is purely Satanic in her edict. She is an awful offshoot of a pitiful, callous administration. She needs to resign or be fired — pronto.
7
The Democrat way is to give more and more free stuff to those either unwilling or too lazy to pay for it. Students are not "defrauded" if they willing enter into a loan agreement with a lender. If they fail to use the loan wisely, why should the lender be on the hook for their stupidity?
Another collection of Republican liars, thieves and criminals who belong behind bars, not running a government they hate, for people they have only contempt fpr, on behalf of plutocrats who seek to reduce the American people to serfs.
November 6, 2018.
The Reckoming for Republican criminals and traitors begins.
Vote.
3
She’s the daughter in law of the billionaire founder of the massive pyramid scheme known as Amway. Another entitled plutocrat without a clue. Throw these bums out. The lot of them.
10
Devos supports toxic loans and dishonesty for the very people she was tasked to educate and protect. It's another disgusting example of a Trumpist at work making America uh . . .
oh yeah - suffer.
4
Check Trump “university” first. Very little u in university.
How bizarre that a Monroe College (for profit "college") series of ads is attached to this story.
2
It's interesting that this comes just a few months after a judge finalized a $25 million settlement for students who claimed they were defrauded by Trump University. Probably just coincidence.
2
DeVos and her crew of former officials of for-profit schools are restoring the schools' ability to force students to sign waivers giving up their rights to sue and relying on arbitration to settle disputes with the schools. They say this restriction will actually benefit students by allowing them to settle their claims -- i.e. see them rejected -- more quickly. They say “Postsecondary students are adults who can be reasonably expected to make informed decisions if they have access to relevant and reliable data about program outcomes.” If so, let them *decide* whether to sign arbitration agreements instead of letting colleges make the agreements a condition of enrollment.
Save $700 million? Oh goody. That will give trump more money to bail out farmers and everyone else hurt by his easy to win tariff wars. Take the money meant to help citizens and give it to business. Making America great again the Republican way.
2
Of course. She stands with the crooks. A true Trump supporter. It's not enough to call her names. The education establishment should strike out against the public school book publishers that blink at civil rights in American history. Of course, she stands with them. Unless they fear having their money from the Dep't cut off if they speak out. The miscreants are in charge because the majority of decent folk sat home on election day. Not this time, in 2018. Not this time. Even with the rigging of the voting rolls. Mail in your ballots before election day. VOTE them out of Congress and you will some real fun with Congressional hearings where the disinfectant of sunlight works.
3
Your article points out that the DeVos proposal "also restores 'pre-dispute arbitration agreements,' which allow colleges to force students to sign waivers saying that they will settle their disputes through arbitration." This would be the last nail in the coffin of any defrauded student seeking redress, for other than arbitration, it would limit the student's choices to (1) filing an individual lawsuit, or (2) trying to negotiate the virtually insurmountable obstacles proposed by DeVos.
This part of the proposal is supported by two key Supreme Court cases, both decided by a 5-to-4 conservative majority. The more recent one, of May 21, 2018, upheld a 2017 lower-court decision (Epic Systems v. Lewis) that permitted an employer to require a prospective employee to agree to arbitration as a condition of employment. The other one, ATT v. Concepcion, of April 27, 2011, permitted a vendor to require a prospective purchaser to agree to arbitration as a condition for purchasing the proffered goods or services.
Since it is more accurate to think of defrauded students as customers than as employees, the second case may be more relevant to their plight. But either way, the existence of these precedents, especially in the hands of a Supreme Court that may soon become more pro-big business than it already is, may help make the DeVos proposal legally bulletproof should it pass.
3
Kick ‘me when they’re down; that’s the Trump Admin model. If a college has proved fraudulent, why on earth would you punish the victims?
Plus word Is going out to student borrowers who are repaying their debt that some will face a 400% increase in monthly payment.
We should support our next generation of leaders and taxpayers. Not crush them.
1
Couldn't you make an equally valid argument that public and private not for profit universities that encourage people to get degrees in Art, Humanities, and Literature are also defrauding people? Paying 100k to get a literature degree from a small private university with a tree lined campus is as big of a fraud as getting a worthless degree from ITT Tech, yet no one seems to question allowing people to take out massive loans for degrees that offer few job prospects.
1
@Ben
No you cannot.
@Ben No, Ben. Traditional college is not trade school. There is value in a college education beyond the enhanced ability to get a good job.
2
The rules do not apply just to “for profit colleges,” as reported in the article, but rather apply to all colleges and universities that are eligible to participate in the federal student aid programs. The current rules, and any modifications made in the rule making, would equally apply to traditional colleges and universities.
1
A true and faithful follower of our leader. Amazing that she acquired her compassionate attitudes at one of the most "Christian" colleges in the nation. A reverse Robin Hood- take from the poor to fund the tax breaks for the wealthy. Every day I think that our nation cannot possibly sink any lower only to be shocked again by some new policy.
I understand her next move will be to eliminate student seating from all schools.
Since our con man president ran the fraudulent Trump University, is anyone surprised he is more sympathetic to the fraudsters than to citizens?
This is past due, too many professional students in this country that just want to go to school and not work. Getting a school loan is like buying a car or home, you agree that it is a loan and you will pay it back. I got a loan, worked a job while going to school and paid the loan off so don't say it can't be done. You reneg on a loan, it should hurt your credit and follow you for the rest of your life until you pay the money back.
1
@Packin heat Not exactly the point here. Nobody says that students should not be expected to honor their loan agreements. The point is there should be a penalty for fraudulent, for-profit, ripoff schools that do not honor their agreement to provide a useful education.
@Packin heat
Never before have I felt compelled to reply to a reader comment. I challenge your characterization of "professional students." Students pursue higher education with the goal of preparing themselves for the job market. The cost of higher education in the U.S. is astronomical and continues to increase. Without loans, college is financially out-of-reach for most students and families.
I trust you are aware how common it has become for young adults to "boomerang," and out of financial necessity, move back in with their parents after college This has an adverse social and economic ripple effect.
A student loan is not the same as a credit-financed shopping spree, and no one is promoting defaulting on student loans.
We are in need of education reform. Tragically, Ms. DeVos's idea of "education reform" - on its face and in practice - hurts students, families, and society. (I will refrain from commenting on her biases and her job performance.)
We should be a society which promotes lifelong learning, not which condemns it.
3
I once looked into getting a secind degree and contacted one of these for-profit schools - the salesman - ummm, registration person - told me I wouldn't have to pay anything just get financing... I knew there is no "free lunch" and loans have to be repaid, but the sales pitch definitely downplayed the borrower responsibility part.
He emailed and called for months trying to get me to sign up.
Definitely predatory behavior, very likely on a commission basis.
I think this is very like the bad mortgage business that we've seen. For some, there is legitimate reason for relief, for others not so much. It is hard to distinguish who should legitimately get relief from this debt.
can you share where the public can comment on this proposal?
A woman whose money mainly came from one of the biggest scam industries in the US--and that's saying a lot--thinks that students need to prove that they were intentionally defrauded. Like Amway, much of the for profit education industry, is based on fraud. No wonder she loves those scam schools and the loan industry that support them so much; they remind her fondly of how she got so rich.
2
You can see it on her face - a very punitive person for no good reason. The mercenary brother probably the same. A difficult childhood?
Of all the destructive, useless cabinet member DeVos may be the worst. Why? She is directly taking people's lives and making active and mostly successful decision to make them worse. She does not seem to care for the human factor involved in her disastrous decisions at all. She is a cold-hearted wealthy woman, terribly self-involved like Disney's creation Cruella DeVille. And now as her possible ties to Russia begin to surface, her reasons for what she does become a lot easier to parse.
2
DeVos shares Trump's view that the proper role of government is to ensure that business interests are unimpeded in their endless and usurious bamboozling of the American people.
1
What is universally lacking in this cabinet is empathy.
Allow the bad loans to be charged back to the originator if all collection efforts fail. I think you would see an immediate change in the free and easy manner in which these loans are offer. This would likely put some of the really bad for profit schools (Trump University) out of business or keep them from being started in the first place. And, think quality community colleges. They are a great place to start for those students not ready for a four year school and some even offer vocational courses in fields like nursing, accounting, mechanics, etc.
4
Caveat emptor. That was a lesson from "The Brady Bunch". Apparently none of the Millennials have learned it yet. The Obama administration created a disaster by handing out student loans like raindrops, to teenagers who could not pay them back, especially when majoring in "Obscure French Poets of the 12th Century" and wondering why the only job they could find was flipping burgers. There are plenty of jobs - and a lack of applicants - in high tech, yet the Millennials keep avoiding that track.
1
What do you mean by “high tech”? I know information technology majors and engineering majors who can’t find jobs or who have lost jobs.
1
that was happening before obama
@KarlosTJ The Obama-era rules did not forgive loan debt for students because they couldn't find a job in their specialization (more likely IT or "business", not "obscure french poets.") The loan forgiveness was for students ripped off by institutions that misrepresented the job prospects of their graduates, and/or offered "education" of such poor quality as to be worthless. The new De Vos rules will make it harder for defrauded students to gain relief, even as she's made it easier for sub-par, for-profit institutions to rake in all that guauranteed student loan money. Caveat emptor my foot!
1
Just yesterday I was wondering what Ms. Betsy was up to. With her boss causing 24/7 chaos elsewhere she is conveniently under the radar. Thanks for highlighting this unsurprising but horrible plan of hers. Hopefully there is enough manpower left for pushback.
9
Not knowing you were being defrauded does not lessen the crime.
11
Ms. DeVos, as with most (all?) of trump's cabinet officials, is an obscenity. It was ironic that Sarah Sanders suggested former intelligence officials might be stripped of their security clearances because they were monetizing them. DeVos and the entire trump clan and many others in the administration only act in their own self interest and working to profit off of their positions.
9
Finally, a Secretary of Education who protects the student loan industry from being victimized by predatory borrowers. Bravo, Betsy!
24
DeVos is a predator as well. Never forget that.
Why would anyone attend a "for profit" university in this day and age? Why? If that's the only school the student can get into that should be a huge red flag. Just say no to begin with.
3
This is why government should not be involved in loaning money for post-secondary education. Government intrusion in this area is a major factor behind the soaring price of tuition at both traditional schools and these other schools, many of which are deceitful in their marketing and educational offerings. And, if students can't repay their loans, don't let the government bail out the lenders.
As for many of these for-profit schools, they do need to be shut down.
6
Were it not for government loans, a huge number of young people would not be able to attend college.
Far from curtailing student loans, a society that wants to remain reasonably educated should offer free college tuition to anyone who meets the academic requirements.
13
@Ron Wilson
Actually the declining support of the states is the primary reason for the increased tuition costs
1
@juan Juan, I referred to the presence of easy student loans as a major factor, certainly not the only factor in the spiraling cost of tuition. And, decreased state funding has nothing whatsoever to do with the spiraling cost of tuition at private schools.
Sounds like more common sense coming from the Trump administration. It’s going to take a long time to unwind all the freebies from the great Obama giveaway but this is a great start. Finally adults are back in charge.
6
Yes, high praise is in order for the con man that swindled Trump U students out of $40 million in tuition. Keep supporting Trump, though--Putin loves watching him get away with criminal activity.
So it’s ok for for profit colleges to defraud students?
Yes, adults are back in charge — of insuring that new generations will be less educated than they, and the nation will increment itself into idiocracy.
What is unconscionable about this is that these schools hold out hope to tens of thousands of displaced workers that they will learn new skills that will help them find new careers. We’ve all seen the ads that show everyday men and women going from working on the line to a “high-paying, satisfying career” in IT, HVAC repair, etc.
More often than not, these “institutions” are taking advantage of economc fear and desperation for their own profit motives, much like the rainmakers and snake oil salesmen who preyed on the unsuspecting back in the day.
DeVos is aiding and abetting this despicable fraud, but in an administration rife with unqualified, ethically challenged grifters, I can’t say I’m surprised that she, too, is doubling-down on the misery of others.
What do we expect when money rules all and people are mere afterthoughts?
12
Imagine the dilemma of a young ambitious barely-out-of-teens young person, desperate not to spend a lifetime flipping hamburgers, willing to study hard for a profitable skill--and seeing an ad that promises an education that provides them with such a skill. The young person enrolls, takes out a loan that is costly but is the only way open for avoiding a lifetime of penury and poor-wage employment. But we discover that the school itself was real fake (like Trump University) and did not educate, and the lenders were not concerned about their borrowers but only about their profits (like those bankers who sold subprime securitizations just before 2008)---and then after a few years of listening to the nonsense course which is not what was promised---it all blows up--and the defrauded young person is left with a long-term debt--possibly a lifetime debt. Who is to blame and who should now be held accountable? Republicans will support the money-makers, the businesses (in this case the schools and money lenders) and the newly-packed federal court system will support them--in this group we have De Vos and her associates . Democrats will support the job seekers, the defrauded students, those condemned to years of paying off unfair debt. The final question boils down to a cruel, self-centered, what's in it for me Republican approach to a humane, empathic Democratic approach that weeps with the poor. Comes 2018--which?
14
DeVos promotes the buyer beware philosophy for education. Of course, this benefits her businesses, but she is only doing what the other Trump cabinet members are doing, molding the laws to suit her financial gain.
The challenge here is that I was under the impression our government was for the people not for business owners who can take advantage of them.
It seems lying and misrepresentation of facts is the new business model, advocated by our President and his minions; buyer beware indeed.
17
At the risk of this having been asked by someone else, would this also apply to Trump University?
13
@Dave....Just Dave
I would say it would have to, as this particular "university" (hah!) was very very competent at the shell game it perpetrated on the duped young kids who thought they could trust The Donald to give them an education. The one thing they may have learned is never to trust Trump to help anyone - except himself; and then to pile on the damage after he deceived them.
Elizabeth Barry
Will this have a detrimental effect on graduates of Trump University?
8
Meanwhile, local news reports that vandals set one of her seven yachts adrift recently, causing $5-10 thousand damage. She obviously has no empathy for students hoping to someday be able to paddle their own canoes.
6
Remember the wisdom of the Bernie Bros: Hillary and Trump are the same.
1
That's not wisdom. It's propaganda.
Hello, Democratic candidates, campaign managers, strategists and media mavens. Are catching this latest and blatant act of economic royalism? If so, how early and often will you be presenting Ms. DeVos's scheme to her boss's beloved "hard working Americans"?
4
A truly despicable,unkind,and uncaring person with no heart and less sympathy than a snail for the plight of young people trying to better themselves The Education Secretary should first and foremost be an advocate for students,and teachers to succeed. Who are these people? Is she the best person out of the 330 million plus citizens we can find? It is not wealth that makes one a bad person; it is their bad,and heartless actions.
6
@Slow fuse
and often how you got that wealth.
This is all part of a much larger anti-education goal. An autocracy requires a stifled press and an uneducated but fervently evangelical citizenry. And Trump's desire is to be the first dictator of America.
12
Betsy DeVos's brother, Erik Prince, of Blackwater notoriety, will probably be implicated in Mueller investigation. Perhaps Ms. DeVos will not be long in her position.
6
The Republicans try so hard not to do anything for regular people. So why do they keep electing them?
8
Unless you are a socialist the revision seems fair. Pretty basic principles at work here. If you borrow money pay it back. If you were a victim of fraud sue them. Prove you case. There are no participation trophies awarded past middle school! Once you turn 18 you are an adult.
3
At 18 students had just been brainwashed for 12 years about going to college only to come out and be scammed by fraudsters.
What high school class teaches about fraud? Oh that's right - none.
As far as "just sue them", how are students buried in debt from worthless degrees going to have the funds to hire a good enough lawyer to get their money back?
Education should not depend upon money.
A society that makes it difficult to attend college is dumbing itself down.
Not that the US has that much farther to drop.
@Steve
of course, Steve! On your eighteenth birthday, suddenly all the wisdom and experience of the world alights on you and you understand all there is to know in the adult world, and can make brilliant decisions and never again trust an adult especially those who are looking for you to trick you out of your savings. (from fast-food service work perhaps, or babysitting?)
1
Of course she proposes that. What did you expect? The Amway fortune inherited by her husband puts her in the 88th richest family in America. Her brother is Erik Prince, of Blackwater notoriety. They cozy up to Libertarian extremists who have poisoned the political and economic discourse for decades now, with their seditious anti-government propaganda.
I'm getting sick and tired of the fourth estate Not calling this what it plainly is...Class Warfare. That should be in the headline of nearly all of these monsters' policy proposals.
30
Ms. Devos may have a legit point about rules targeted at ITT and the other one accidentally being applicable to legit schools. Might this be the case? I dunno: has she earned the benefit of our doubts?
(I personally was put off by her dubious statement about Bear Categories, but I've studied math.)
4
Thanks to Betsy, transgender kids, victims of sexual assault, victims of school gun violence, and people who have been scammed by shady for profit institutions now have to yell louder and longer just to make their voices heard. Betsy has a private plane, a private agenda, and two tin ears. She is uniquely unqualified and clearly should never been confirmed for this job.
18
Maybe schools should be obligated to issue bank guarantees to protect lenders (e.g. the loaning banks) from default or fraud on the part of the school. This is what we do in industry, and believe me, a company looking to commit fraud will think twice when it has the exposure of a bank guarantee executable on first demand hanging over its head...
These would be the serious, business-minded solutions to the problem that we should discuss. But no, Ms. DeVos prefers to go after the weakest and least protected of all the stakeholders involved - the students. How despicable, lazy and incompetent.
12
The story telling here is quite interesting: we’re led to believe that a significant policy is being jammed through that would have horrible impact on defrauded students. Next we’re told this new plan only saves the government $700 million. Not a lot relative to an $18.5 trillion economy, however, also not a lot relative to the value of student loan debt which is now in excess of $1.5 trillion. So, now, evil De Vos has changed a policy that would help .00047 of the outstanding student debt in a given year. That sounds like a really important policy change. Let’s make sure we really scrutinize this one. Don’t get me wrong, clearly a lot of schools have committed fraud, and I’m sympathetic as someone who graduated five years ago with $200k in debt. It also does not seem to make sense from a fairness perspective to require a much higher showing for forgiveness on student debt than any other. The problem, and no one seems to want to talk about this, is that right now any student is essentially guaranteed to receive a loan to attend an accredited institution of higher learning. Think about that for a minute. Would you loan your own dollars to the average college or graduate student in this country? Of course not, it would be like lighting cash on fire. So how can we guarantee loans to all applicants without some higher showing on the back end? I know, make it all free (except to the guy who’s paying for it all).
3
A fraction of the bloated military budget would be enough to make college free to all who qualify academically.
The wealthy parasites can always afford higher education. It's in their interest to keep the population they prey on ignorant and stupid.
Thus, DeVos is not promoting education. She is stifling it.
@Bill
Cynical, are we?
Blissfully unaware of how far this glorious free market fraud of a country has fallen behind the civilized world, and deep[ly uncaring?
A righteous, stiff-backed, logical man willing to say here in front of all of us that, if the crime is "small enough", hey, let's let the big dogs run.
How bad is it, really, to prey on our military, to suck the life out of the dreams of first generation college attendees, to endorse the death of what remains of government credibility? How bad, really?
Besides, you obviously have yours, so...
Really...you would rather see DeVos run rampant over our people for a few more grubby dollars than to pay a tad more for the improvement of your nation and your future?
You can keep your worthless "sympathy", if you don't want to play the game then leave. But don't pretend you have anything to offer your country or your future. Because you don't.
And yes, make it all free. And pay your share.
@oogada I do pay my share, to the tune of $3K a month to various creditors as I will continue to do for the next 5 years. Is it too much to expect others to likewise meet the obligations they freely assumed? I don't excuse small fraud either. If there were a way to make schools that lie pay I'd be on board 100% every time. Problem is for every fraudulent school there's a million and one students who would do just about anything to avoid paying the debt they owe so a balance must be struck administratively to address the fraud that exists on all sides (whenever humans are involved). I have nothing to offer my country? Maybe that's right; I certainly work my tail off on behalf of a whole variety of different interestholders and pay a whole lot to federal state and local taxing authorities virtually none of which will be returned to me in any meaningful way; and I pay back the debts I owe. Maybe that is nothing, but at least I'm not asking for or expecting any handouts. To me, that is something.
As usual, we have another Trump clone heading the Education Department. While she knows nothing about public or private education she seems to know a lot about inflicting pain on victims. What she is doing to strapped college students is in the same vein as Trump's separating children from their parents. This is our new government; full of hatred, aggression, retaliation and deliberate harm. We all need to use our vote in November to prevent the DeVos's of the world from destroying the good that has been done regarding college. opportunities.
9
Why am I not surprised. Our plutocracy use to function where the oligarchs just paid and legally bribed our politicians to do their bidding, now, with the Trump administration, he just cut out the middle man and inserted the oligarch into the governmental position. The lack of empathy for students saddled with crushing debt is astonishing but, again, not surprising. This woman has some real pathology in her.
8
Of course when you have a net worth in the 1% then you don’t need to worry about some pesky student loans.
9
Maybe we could offer to curtail relief for Trump voters who aren't getting what they voted for: farmers, sheel workers, rust belt workers, coal miners... they were defrauded, too, potentially from the same person. and many of them are veterans, too.
10
@e=mc^2
Great idea, but clearly too consistent for this administration.
“The end of democracy and the defeat of the American Revolution will occur when government falls
into the hands of lending institutions and moneyed incorporations.”
–Thomas Jefferson
18
Why is anyone surprised about this? It appears to fit a pattern with this administration. What I dont understand is why anyone continues to support this collection of grifters with President Small Hands in the lead.
8
The majority of these schools are being run for profit, aren't they? We'll see these businesses remain in the black. Defrauded students? Let's watch and learn.
3
Someone is still upset that their fraudulent "university" was shut down and they had to cough up $25 million to the people they scammed.
14
Wretched. Spectacularly wretched. Definitely the first among equals.
5
I thought it was a proven fact that a lot of these “colleges” were frauds. Trump University, anyone?
Betsy DeVos is Public Enemy #1 to anyone who cares about education — especially public education — and students of all ages.
14
MDB: Actually some are quite legitimate.
Finally, someone sticks up for the little guy.
Huge fraudulent for-profit colleges are people too, you know!
2
Interesting that you ignore, as always, how Obama’s cronies, including his best friend Marty Nesbitt, and former secretary Arne Duncan, bet big and won big financially as his administration dismantled ‘for profit ‘ companies mentioned. Now you can say DeVos is the boogie woman bringing common sense back to the fray of government subsidized nonsense that is still a scam on the taxpayers. Mainstream Americans like me who struggled but paid our own way through education are glad to see it finally.
2
It's not a "scam" for a society to promote better education for its people.
Ignorance makes people gullible to the predations of the rich and powerful.
DeVos's role is to make education as difficult as possible, on behalf of the interests of her class.
1
Pompeo will be sorry he defended Trump. It’s the surest way to be fired or else we investigated. He deserves both -the liar!
1
Government for the obscenely wealthy, by the filthy rich, of the friends of Trump... most of whom are also rich. 'nuff said.
5
Self serving, ignorant, & mean spirited ... just like the administration she serves. Her oath is is NOT to the American people or furthering education, rather it is to the dark side interests that feed the far right.
11
Ms. DeVos said in a statement. “Our commitment and our focus has been and remains on protecting students from fraud.”
And to do so she submits a proposal to protect the fraudsters. Typical republican tool.
14
What would one expect from another lackey in the administration of the founder of the discredited trump university.
5
Instead of working to fix or improve public education, Betsy DeVos spends her time defending the financial interests of predatory institutions that defrauded poor people. She is an unqualified, utterly vile woman bent on enriching her cronies by transforming public education into a private, for-profit enterprise. Cruella de Vil is running an animal shelter.
13
The cruelty evidenced by DeVos' performance as Secretary of Education can only be described as depravity.
8
We have GOT to vote this shameful administration out. They have no moral code. No shame. No conscience. Shouting to the rooftops has only left me with damaged vocal cords. The only solution is to get them out and keep them out. November is coming...
15
Of course DeVos defends the fraudsters. She's a fraud, her wealth is Ponzi scheme fraud, her president had a phony university that bilked people before it went bankrupt. The diploma mills she's protecting bilked veterans among others. That means both people who served our country and the citizens are being doubly taxed. This is an invitation for predatory lenders and fake schools, charter, voucher, online pretend college to go trolling for the hopeless and the needy to make decisions that they will be paying for for the rest of their lives. I hope that she will be sued for dereliction of duty. It's open season for phony Christian criminals in this administration. Thanks Republicans for spoiling anything that helps citizens and for making America a truly awful country.
16
Thank you, DeVos, for helping make your cabinet the easiest to fully impeach after November.
11
"Our goal is to protect students from fraud."
Then GET OUT, Betsy! Just LEAVE the Trump administration immediately, because YOU are a mean-spirited & clueless fraud - one who is supremely unfit for the position the Idiot-in-Chief has given you.
15
Fiction couldn’t come up with villains like DeVos and her cronies. Insidious, greedy, hiding behind a veil of so-called Christianity. She’s an evil woman.
22
The world of employment for the current generation is extremely competitive. Without a BS or MBA your chances are slim getting a job that will support living a life of independence.
De Vos who never faced a financial struggle in her life nor does she give a rip about the insurmountable debt these young adults incur. Their decision was and is based on the hope with this sheepskin they will find employment that will pay down this educational debt .
The truth be told, these private lenders are illegal loan sharks.
Another member of the trump adminstration that will always side with the money launders , they are kindred spirits.
9
This policy lays bare the true basis for the American economic and business model in the eyes of the inherited and ill gotten wealthy classes now in charge -- there's a sucker born every minute.
8
The old GOP understood the long-term benefits of expanding higher education in a competitive global employment market.
7
There is a difference, which many readers apparently don't understand, between not paying off a loan or, as with the students in this article being forgiven debt by court process because they were defrauded, and Ms. DeVos taking the part of the powerful against the vulnerable rather than protecting the students. Secretary of Education. If not for the students across our country that would be a massive joke.
This woman would distroy our public education system seemingly so that the wealthy are awarded a break on private education, but the more sinister motive is removing the threat of an educated citizenry
14
No surprises here. Betsy de Vos is neither an educator nor a student. She is just another person born into a wealthy, privileged world who sees no reason to extend the privileges of education to anyone who is not from the same background. Why should any protections be offered to those who have, because of their lack of sophistication, been cheated by institutions purporting to be schools? Clearly, profit driven schools such as Trump University are worthier of her regard than those they prey upon.
13
Of course she did this. Just one more notch in her belt of destroying public education in this country to enrich her own family, presumably including Eric Prince of Iraqi fame, by turning to private institutions that only the wealthy will ever be able to afford
I never am able to figure out why Trump such supporters are so much in favor of the administration move to private schools that only the wealthy will ever be able to afford.
Can anybody explain??
5
didn't he once infamously say "I love the uneducated"?
5
@Mugs: Yes, he did say that.
And the uneducated, under-educated, and/or those who cannot think clearly or analyze accurately are the people who constitute his voting base.
Many commenters and even newspaper articles seem to confuse federal loans with private loans.
Private lenders should be on the hook for making good loans to good students for appropriate schools. Full stop. That problem will go away. (You want 250k for Drew University to major in Art? NO. You want 30k for Corinthian? NO. You want 40k for UCLA. Sure).
Federal loans are another matter. They make an important contribution to kids being able to go to college, and the biggest federal loan pickle you can get into for undergrad school is short of 30k.
Federal loans should only be granted for a list of approved schools, and in the end 30k debt won't a life ruin.
3
The entire gang of Trumpist grifters is desperately converting our working society to disguised forms of financial slavery before election time.
There was a sci-fi short story in the 60's that envisioned US workers being paid with electronic scrip that expired 24 hours after issue, unless spent on frivolous junk beforehand. That's actually how "reward points" on my old credit card worked.
6
Another 'entitlement' this administration thinks is wrecking the economy. Got to pay for the hefty tax cuts. No more welfare. No more health care. Now, it's wealth fare and wealth care. You have money, we will give you more. You don't have money, we will take whatever we can get.
4
Proving that the schools "knowingly deceived" students means proving intent. DeVos knows full well that the burden of such proof is notoriously and historically difficult in the legal arena, fir any cases. All the more so for former students without sufficient means to mount a legal challenge that would be vigorously (and expensively) fought by deep-pocket for-profit schools. DeVos has, with just that one requirement, effectively barricaded redress and has favored business interests over the plight of many students. No surprise there, given her family history and jaded self-interest. It's shameful and damnable. That she professes to be Christian is an additional irony.
9
So students over 18 are grown and need to bear the consequences of being cheated out of their money? Why place the burden on the institutions which cheated them? Those kids should've known better, right? They can still be on their parents insurance--because they can't afford insurance, but don't need help fighting off unscrupulous predatory schools. What logic. I'm ashamed of Lamar.
Mercy.
9
“Postsecondary students are adults who can be reasonably expected to make informed decisions if they have access to relevant and reliable data about program outcomes.”
Many, if not most of these students are kids in their early 20's. Predatory, for-profit institutions will eat them alive in the caveat emptor environment favored by Ms. DeVos.
15
Besty Devos is creating a disaster in order to divide and conquer with her contractors and subcontractors averting congress and the senate who do not want to do their jobs of oversight and management. Similar to her brother Erik Prince who suggested he invade Afghanistan with his mercenary forces trained from Columbia installing himself as Viceroy. When that didn't go over so well after awarded billions of taxpayer dollars for his botched participation in Iraq, Erik Prince simply courted the regime in China.
Who are these people? Betsy Devos and Erik Prince believe in building a state within a state, mercenary forces, vouchers, subcontractors who answer to contractors paid for with taxpayer dollars allocated by a congress and senate bought and paid for and now a White House bought and paid for with dark money.
Betsy Devos and Erik Prince are soldiers of what Naomi Klein aptly calls Disaster Capitalism.
5
Betsey DeVos and her brother Erik Prince are perfect Trumpians. Never give a sucker an even break, and invest in corruption.
Her lack of interest in real education and preference for bolstering profiteers and looters is a family tradition.
This is not Christian - at least not the Jesus I read about in the Gospels - but a fake religion based on power and control and wealth. Whited sepuchers, moneychangers in the temple, casters of first stones, they'd put Jesus in jail as a radical terr'ist if they encountered him.
Shameless.
28
She’s a hardcore Calvinist...
I don't know why college loans became a "for profit". Student loans of old were low interest but have now become a big profit center. The financial aid isn't for students to go surfing or bowling it's for credits and serious hard work to achieve an education and enter society with a skill set that should get them wherever they go. Somehow it doesn't seem fair to make a for profit center on top of skyrocketing tuition costs. I know some young people who are forgoing college rather than face the debt. Does everything in this capitalist society have to be a profit center?
12
@Elizabethnyc It is also interesting to note that Student Loans cannot be discharged in Bankruptcy and cannot be refinanced like mortgages and some other loans.
Betsy DeVos cares more for lenders, businesses and schools than The Students. Donald Trump's Trump University committed FRAUD against its students. No doubt Betsy would side with Trump rather than The Students (aka Trump's Victims).
It's time for DeVos to 1. resign or 2. be impeached for incompetency.
48
De Vos. Born in the lap of privilege. Never had to confront problems of student debt, purports to be an expert.
In the end, an enemy of the American people.
108
If students were able to declare bankruptcy on student loans, this never would have happened. No bank would lend money to a student attending a fraudulent school.
Where’s the free market when you need it? Shouldn’t we be using actuarial tables and salary expectations to price degrees and loan amounts?
23
interest rates would be much higher since you're lending tens of thousands of dollars to people on an unsecured basis.
1
Instead of protecting our laws every single Trump pick is sticking knives in the backs of civilians even when they were defrauded by the like of Trump University.
33
"Our goal is to protect students from fraud." Secretary DeVos, your actions speak to the hypocrisy of your words. Shame on you.
41
Yes, ripping people off is not enough for these greedy Republicans.
Republicans also have to step on them and grind them into ground when they try recover.
34
The message is simple:
"If you've been cheated, tough!"
Since Sec. De Vos is known to be a big supporter of these cheating for-profit "schools" is it any wonder she, like every Trump appointee, would seek, to protect the cheaters at the expense of the victims?
This was obvious and inevitable the horrible day, 8 November 2016, when the man who ran a giant "university" solely to cheat people of limited means out of tens of thousands of dollars, was "elected" as President.
31
@Dadof2
Not elected, but PPP ! Pushed by Putin into the Presidency!
She is a true handmaiden for Trump. Young people are told to get a good education. Trump came along and scammed some very good people out of hopes and dreams. And their money. Trump as usual is out for retribution from a courts' findings against him and his supposed school. Devos comes along as Trumps lackey as Pruit did in EPA, and moves to denying justice to America's citizens. What pathetic people. They have millions and deny hard working people, mostly our youth from receiving justice in our USA. There is plenty of shame here for her and him.
23
Another crazy rich person with no skin in the game and a head full of talk radio nonsense. It's getting almost comical - in the sense that people like DeVos, the Kochs, the Mercers and their ilk think this is all going to be fine. People will just roll over and submit without a whimper. Because the wealthy are superior beings. This is how it's always been. Why would it be any different now?
20
Mrs Devos sure is for the diploma mills, isn't she?
Add to the fact that she's never spent one day in a public school speaks volumes about her lack of expertise in the Education field.
16
Let me begin by saying I do not get why anyone would go to a for-profit college. With all the state funded community and four year colleges that we have in our country I see no need for these for-profit institutions to exist. These for-profit institutions are scams.
The fact that DeVos would make it more difficult for students scammed by these seedy, greedy institutions to jump through more hoops of fire to get reimbursed should not be a surprise. She is the Marie Antoinette of education.
14
What else do we expect from this tool of corporate greed?
Did anyone expect that she would take the side of people seeking an education over the corporations defrauding them?
12
Cruella DeVos. Rich, Clueless and spiteful. The GOP Trifecta.
Seriously.
62
Betsy DeVos should just ask her friends in the industry if they knowingly defrauded the students, to access government funds,
they would have a better handle on the truth. Trump was one of them and the answer was yes, as confirmed in court.
19
This is the only thing she has done that I kind of, sort of agree with. The US shouldn't be using tax revenue from its citizens to essentially subsidize these "higher education" institutions that provide no value to anyone. Now if she would only re-route that tax revenue to community colleges....that would bring it full circle. (as if)
4
@southern mom The problem is that it hurts the students. It will not hurt the schools unless they go out of business.
She doesn't understand that school debt may follow the students long after they leave the school.
8
@edmele In my opinion, I think that people should not go to expensive colleges that provide useless degrees. Knowing that they can get loan forgiveness of sometimes upwards of $100K tuition debt, there is no disincentive to enroll in those kinds of places.
What else should you expect from Ms DeVos who has made herself rich defrauding students? The studennts were naive and trusting.
I guess you could say welcome to the real world.
14
This article shows, again, why the United States has become a dark warning to the peoples of the Free World of how democracy can become a crushing burden on its weakest citizens. Donald Trump perfected the con of stiffing trusting students with his fraudulent Trump University. Now his protégés in the Trump Administration are multiplying the con practice across the United States to cripple the education of future citizens of the US ! If anything can get despicable in a free democracy, one has to just look for a stand-out example in American democracy.
Fortunately, European democracy in France & in Germany still provide shining hope for US President Abraham Lincoln’s Timeless promise of Democracy - Govt of the people, by the people, for the people.
15
Did she look into the way the Trump U students had to sue to get relief? Maybe she could offer a class action suit.
10
Good to know that Betsy is putting her Christian teachings to good use: show no mercy or empathy for your fellow man. She's not only not qualified for the job, she lacks kindness, compassion and an acquaintance with what real people experience. A great fit for this administration
27
@SNA: I agree. If we lined up De Vos and the rest of this miserable administration's henchpersons, we'd have a true rogue's gallery of unqualified people who are fake Christians - with hardened hearts, big bank accounts, and no ethics. (No interest in ethics, either.)
1
For profit universities stink, mostly accept students that cannot get into regular universities, if they are not college material, then college education does not change their job prospects.....
trump university is an example of private colleges that do a bad job in teaching. but there are lots of examples. And these for profit universities charge a lot. These loans can cripple the financial health of a student for LIFE!
12
Cruella DeVos is staying true to herself - self-serving, mean spirited, elite oligarch sticking it to the peasants.
13
The federal government & politicos running it can't be relied on to regulate scam schools. For-profit school owners make off like bandits and should be jailed; students neglected to do adequate due diligence in picking them and signed on for loans.
Taxpayers are the ones who are entirely blameless in this situation and should not be stuck absorbing any of the cost of the bad debt. In the meantime, there needs to be serious financial literacy training in secondary schools.
4
DeVos works for the founder of Trump "University", which was exposed as a fraud by the courts - no wonder she wants to protect criminal enterprises posing as schools. WWJD, Bets?
8
Hey Betsy, your czar boss just shelled out billions to farmers to make up for a crisis he is causing. Why not bail out some students who were duped?
15
These loans can’t be dismissed through bankruptcy... wow... what’s next debtors prison?
14
Betsy went from 'dumb and dumber' to 'evil and mean-spirited' in a heartbeat. There wasn't much hope after she hired the man who created the student-loan fraud crisis to be her right-hand man for solving all those nasty student-loan problems.
7
This is Trump's MAGA and help for the little man. A few years ago I would have found this unbelievable, but not now. How can Ms. DeVos look herself in the mirror in the morning?
13
@Brian
Vampires don't like mirrors.
Will Trump University be back in business?
5
This is about one of the most cynical things I’ve heard...well this week, alas.
DeVos has massive conflicts of interest, zero knowledge of education (except to line her pockets), and is rich, with no idea what financial struggle is about. She also knows nothing about trying to better yourself by achieving it.
She should be removed from her position immediately.
11
Of course they knowingly deceived their students and left them burdened with debt, while stealing from the US taxpayer - that is the business model of for-profit "universities".
4
"The schools were found to have misled their students with false advertisements and misleading claims for years."
So why wasn't Obama's Dept. of Education doing anything about this?
Was Arne Duncan asleep at the wheel?
7
@Moderate Republican. He did in 2015 after a couple of for profit universities got exposed for fraud. He created legislation to ease debt and crack down on predatory institutions. DeVos blocked the legislation in 2017 right before it was to go into effect.
30
@Moderate Republican or Rip Van Winkle, whichever you prefer. While you were sleeping Trump was elected, so deceptive and predatory student loans are now his problem to fix. Just as he fixed Trump University.
5
@Moderate Republican
No, he was confronted with majority Republicans who refused stricter standards for profit-making educational scam artists.
This is not Obama's problem, its yours.
1
This doesn't have anything to do with Trump University trying to get off the hook for defrauding its students, does it?
5
As others have noted, DeVos's family has heavy financial investments in for-profit scam schools. Beyond having absolutely no business being the nation's secretary of education she REALLY has conflicts of interest making such a promulgation as this.
But, of course, ethics are for chumps when the GOP takes over. Trump is too busy keeping up with his own family's self-interests to worry about DeVos's game.
5
This is a new criterion for redress of a wrong in America. The implication seems to be that a student can have been defrauded, but can’t have recourse to relief unless the fraud has reduced him or her to penury. This is a pernicious concept, designed to assist unscrupulous for profit learning institutions.
6
Time to break out my tee shirt, again.
Dear America:
Sorry about
Betsy
DeVos.
Signed, Michigan.
I make sure to wear it after every embarrassing incompetent thing she does.
11
Encouraging false advertising......how surprising from an administration led by a man who peddled a phony university on late-night TV defrauding folks at the tune of $25 million. Then, the Republicans, instead of doubling over in laughter that such an unfit bloviator would have the audacity to run for president, actually nominated him and now apparently worship him. Fellow Americans, please say no to unqualified out-of-touch billionaires like Betsy Devos by voting for the Democrats in November.
7
I tend to view Betsy the same way I view her brother, Eric Prince, that is, with a jaundiced eye and a HUGE helping of disgust.
Two little rich kids.
Betsy marries into the biggest pyramid scheme ever in this country - Amway - and cleans out the pockets of millions of middle-class hopefuls over decades of shenanigans; and Eric forms an army-for-profit, Blackwater, and tries to see how many of those bales of dollars (a pile so big that when it was photographed it could be seen from outer space) he can pry out of the Army's fingers.
Now, how surprised am I that they have teamed up with trump, a man who shilled thousands out of THEIR money, had to be sued, was legally deemed a crook AFTER he was elected and had to pay $25,000,000.
Oh, how I wish all three of these pick-pocketer's had been born poor, that none of us had ever heard of any of these lousy excuses of United States citizens.
We do have good people in this country, but we do not have even one decent, competent person in the trump universe.
Crooks. Cheaters.
How I yearn for the grace and competence of Jimmy Carter.
And Hillary Clinton.
14
Didn't Trump campaign on the "system is rigged"? Didn't he tell his base he would "take care of them"?
Then he hired the "best" system riggers he could find to staff government agencies that were established to protect the environment, borrowers and consumers from fraud...
And so it goes with Trump and the GOP in charge, where" the business of government is not only business" but protecting fraudulent and criminal businesses and activities.
Is DeVos or her reprehensible, scamming family members invested in for-profit colleges?
I still think the mainstream media has been remarkably quiet about informing the public what these for-profit colleges do and how they operate. There should be a media saturation campaign to educate the public about the calibre of the "faculty" at these schools, the fraudulent "sell" and false promises made to the prospective students, etc.
People may not know that you can take online courses at state universities and college that are accredited and responsible.
8
DeVos to the rescue. Another Trump travesty.
5
I guess this would have included former Trump University students so no surprises here.
5
When people value money over other people, they become monsters. This administration is a perfect illustration.
8
If only Trump University was part of this! The Trumpists would still think this is only fake news.
Drain the swamp (perhaps too late)! Kidding! It's too late.
1
An idea for Betsy DeVos: Pursue your self-serving ideology to its logical end : make it a crime to be defrauded and hoodwinked and sent those found guilty to jail (a private one of course). Now, *that* will be an education for those who dared to dream of improving their life above their station. Then financially reward the fraudsters for providing the people such an education.
Sick, sick, sick. Poor US of A.
3
Ms. DeVos lives every day according to the adage from Cloud Atlas: "the weak are meat that the strong do eat".
Shameful.
4
republicans are taking us all into the gutter.
How we ever return to any semblance of normality is beyond me.
I weep for the loss of our democracy.
8
“All one had to do was raise his or her hands to be entitled to so-called free money.”
Yeah, and all Betsy DeVos had to do was be born.
Meritocracy and all that.
5
For-profit colleges shouldn't be allowed. I love how these schools can go out of business, and now the government is being asked to pick up the pieces. How about not allowing shady companies to exist?
27
...student loans from for profit colleges compromise approximately 35% of all outstanding student loans - their default rate is a stunning 47%.
What does that mean?
It means the program is a failure - and needs to be discontinued. As a lender for over a decade, you don't make loans to individuals who cannot repay the loan...these are students...they have no jobs.
It took my daughter years and years to repay tens of thousands of dollars of students - she was fortunate to have a good job which allowed her to repay those loans.
Millions of students weren't able to graduate and/or find jobs to repay their loans. Their lives are being adversely affected by the outstanding debt.
The government needs to discontinue the student lending program now! It should be replaced with grants to students in need - grants which are not repaid, and are maintained by minimum GPA's from the students receiving them.
The government has written off hundreds of millions in student loan debt, and will most likely be writing off, according to estimates, 30-40% of the $1.2 trillion outstanding - that's $300-$400 billion dollars. That money could have been given out as grants, with rules that provide incentives for students to succeed.
Reckless lending - an uncaring Congress, and millions of students in despair.
Stop the bleeding now - no more student loans.
24
@JMS Student loans are critical! My kids carry government student loans. That is the part of their education I make them pay for. Skin in the game and all.
What needs to be done is:
Student loans from private lenders should be dischargeable in bankruptcy. What makes Sallie Mae special? Government loans should have discharge rules also.
Lenders should be cautious what students they loan to and for what schools.
Loans should make sense. 300k for a teaching degree at a private liberal arts Uni is almost as criminal as Corinthian.
Oh yeah, and fire the student aid officers.
National Defense Education Act
United States [1958]
Signed into law by Eisenhower, its purpose was to improve and encourage education past high school as a matter of national security.
Common Core--a response to American business's call for a better, more educated workforce.
Similar goals, now abused by the education profiteers...it's time for American business to pay for and cultivate the workforce it needs at home and to rely less on the talents of immigrants.
Take Betsy and her cohorts out of the equation.
18
My own student loan job was working a second job for one of these for-profit colleges. Being told to accept the Bible as a single educational reference on a geopolitical paper about the United Nations replacing 5 "academic references" any time a student desired says a lot about colleges intent to deceive not only the students but the Nation's goodwill as a whole. After a decade plus of putting graduates like this into the workforce I don't wonder long at why the Trump Administration gets away with pursuing some of its rage based voter strategies.
18
Where is the oversight over these "universities"? They are preying on desperate people who are trying to get ahead. Also, who is looking at the companies that are financing these loans?
30
@JCAZ
Private companies like Devos's, administer public money that is used to finance post secondary education. We don't value an education in this country, instead we've monetized it. We put a dollar value on our future as a country. Look at any country, where education is valued, where people pay for access to education via taxes. Yes it's true that people are willing to pay higher taxes for things like and education, access to healthcare, etc.
You don't see people taking to the streets in say France, protesting against paying taxes for education, or chanting, we want to be like the US charge us exorbitant amounts of money, we don't want to be smart. Nope people in France take to the streets when they talk about taking it away, or cutting it back.
India is going to be where the next wave of innovation comes from, not the US, not anymore.
1
DeVos's family has investments in for-profit schools. How is she being allowed to make these kinds of decisions? She has major conflicts of interest.
123
@Allison
So have all the Trump appointees. Tom Price, Steven Munchkin (misspelled)Wilbur Ross, Ben Carson, all have ethical issues. Tom Price was a stock holder in many healthcare companies, that he either wrote bills or voted on bills that directly enriched him.
I hope that when the democrats come back to power they pass laws, statutory laws, the demand anyone elected to public office will put their holdings into a blind trust, and cannot have any decision making ability with regards to their portfolio.
I've said it for years, we the public bear some of the responsibility for congress. And the inaction of those we send to do the business of the voter. They've learned how to game the system and leave us holding the bag.
3
Half of her staff were formerly employed at various diploma mills.
4
Betsy DeVos advocates only for Christian, and private schools in our country. Our people are from much more than only Christian lineage. As Secretary of the Department of Eduction, she offers no master plan to support K through 8 public school education for our country's children. ALL OF OUR CHILDREN. Shame on us if we allow this to continue further.
31
Shame on DeVos and Trump Administration, indeed. But without any real clout currently by opponents of the destruction of public education in this country, exactly how is anybody supposed to make a dent in any of this??
VOTE IN NOVEMBER!!
1
Whose side is this woman on? Isn’t the purpose of the department to support students?
14
Under GOP (and some Dem) administrations going back at least to Reagan, the purpose of any department is never to the citizen beneficiaries of any policy, but always to the industries - Coal, Pharma, AMA, defense contractors, private educational interests, etc., all of whom plan to profit handsomely as their respective industries are privatized and monetized by legislatures purchased by them for that specific purpose. The era of government of value to citizens is long past.
Sorry for noting the obvious; the heavy irony of your rhetorical question assures all that you understand this full well.
2
She is on her investments side or in other word $$$$
1
I long for the days when the Education Secretary worked to make public education better rather than working to enrich educational loan lenders.
51
Well, lovely. Another reason the economy will crash. I am sure all of the country's student loan debt has already been carved up into junk bond tranches. Without government assistance to help dig some of these people out, they'll default. Then tariffs' effects will hit, the stock market will dip, housing market stall, there goes more retirement savings, then happy days are here again and we'll have to put another Democratic President in office to fix a Republican's economic disaster, who we then dump on and blame once they succeed.
Two words: STOP LOSS.
12
Corinthian, ITT, Thomas Jefferson School of Law, FastTrain, Education Management Corp., Alta, Lincoln Tech, etc...the list goes on.
Same 'pump & dump' scheme:
Falsely advertise the merits / classes of your program.
Illegally induce students to enroll, illegally process student-loans either unauthorized or authorized via fraudulent-representation of graduation-rates and or employment-rates of matriculates, and then essentially spend the illegally-converted dollars on either the school-building mortgage-payments, inflated faculty salaries or other expenses not directly correlated to the actual education of the students.
This is FRAUD on a massive-scale.
That DeVos would defend these egregious criminal-enterprises dressed up as 'colleges' or 'universities' is immensely disappointing and devoid of reality.
Millions of otherwise honest, hardworking, studious students have had their futures hijacked, and who are unable to continue their education, or obtain vehicle-loans or mortgages as a result of being the victims of fraud.
SHAME ON DEVOS.
89
@Fortitudine Vincimus.
Because she's a stockholder in the company that benefits from collecting tax payer money, that was used for student loans. Again, like the federal flood insurance, we the tax payer take on all the risk associated with student loans, but people like Devos benefit from it. Similarly, insurance companies that administer the federal flood insurance program take on no risk, they don't underwrite the policies, yet they made 400 million, by telling people no, it wasn't the hurricane that flooded your home, it was an "act of god" therefore it isn't covered.
Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego is not one of the offenders.
DeVos is not an education professional and she has absolutely zero qualifications to be Secretary of Education. She is an ideologue who bought her influence with the radical right by donations to conservative political causes. She is a direct threat to public education and the sooner she leaves office the better. She represents the private college scam industry that preys on unsuspecting innocent people seeking training and education. These students would be far better off going to a real state university. The old adage “buyer beware” certainly applies here. DeVos should be ashamed of the damage she is inflicting on our education system.
44
Who on earth is this government working for, anyway?
As if I need to ask.
39
Perhaps the Obama Administration did write rules too broadly; that was something I both heard and experienced during years of work in higher education.
But, if so, that is not a good reason to trust Betsy DeVos, and her boss, the proprietor of Trump University, to develop a better standard. In short, these folks are not to be trusted.
15
@Native Tarheel, "not to be trusted" indeed.
4
DeVos saves $700 million which goes to the farmers. I love this shell game.
12
I think billionaires like Devos should only make decisions that affect other billionaires. Wait. They did. They gave themselves more tax relief. Never mind.
26
So De Vos supports charter schools for children, which, if they are like the ones in Michigan that she supported, fail to provide an actual education and leave many children unable to qualify for legitimate public or non-profit colleges and universities.
Them after the poorly educated person tries to get an education anyway, De Vos encourages for-profit "colleges" to make false representations, charge exorbitant tuition to be paid through student loans, and make it impossible for the scammed student to obtain debt relief when the college folds or the degree proves to be worthless.
Trump certainly picked the right person to promote his war on non-rich Americans.
15
Our soon-to-be-former European allies (if Putin and Trump have their way) provide free or low-cost higher education. We don't. The United States has forfeited the future.
14
@Carl Ian Schwartz. Caution on that free European education. European kids are identified for University or moving man by 4th or 5th grade. Thats it. Try reinventing yourself in high school or beyond. Forget it.
The "free college" comes at other costs, and there is nothing wrong with paying for something you get value from. It reduces freeloaders.
Whats truly powerful is the community college. Americans have more choices, the power of reinvention or change of direction, and a culture that allows it.
Free college is too expensive.
1
@David
"Free college is too expensive."
No, it's not. We have the money, but we spend it on war.
The government should do due diligence on behalf of the tax-payer before paying upfront costs for unaccredited for-profit “colleges” and deny loans to these institutions. Why don’t these people ever protect the working class tax payer? What are we paying them for?
24
Well, lesson #1 is avoid for-profit schools entirely. But if only DeVos would stick to pushing charter schools. Did Trump voters really vote for a shill for the financial industry?
13
Two NYTimes quotes:
1. "Corporate income tax collections are near a 75-year low"
2. "DeVos Proposes to Curtail Debt Relief for Defrauded Students"
Time for economists to remind us that "correlation does not imply causation."
13
@Bill absolutely agree with you
Well my guess is DeVos hasn't disclosed all of her investments, and some of them include predatory student lenders. Or maybe it's her brother Erik's investments. Thick as thieves, that family.
9
Really? Maybe the colleges themselves should first justify tuition costs.
8
Aw come on. Is nothing too low for De Vos. These people were robbed. She has zero qualifications for her job. Her husband runs a "legal" ponzi scheme. Congress needs to get into the act here. And, given that Trump will benefit personally and she's his appointee she needs to recuse herself from anything to do with this. Whatever happened to honesty and fair play in this country? Oh I know Trump.
13
Betsy DeVos HAS NO degree in education! Why doesn’t the media put that to the public?
She has NO business leading education in this country.
She has promoted private and religious education. Now she wants students who have been scammed to “prove” it?
Face it. In order to work for Trump the first requirement is to be sneaky. She fits that bill.
41
@MIMA I especially like that devos never attended public school. Another wealthy inexperienced bureaucrat who knows wha t is good for the rest of us.
1
Disallow real estate developers to go bankrupt, please. They should have solid business plans and not depend on bankruptcy to continue operations. If students choose a bad school, and they have to pay, then no benefits for unsuccessful real estate speculation is fair.
76
@pointofdiscovery: Would that let Trump University off the hook?
Naturally. Defrauding students was her boss's main source of income for years.
65
They also serve who only serve themselves, Betsy.
13
Maybe it’s time for a name change at the Department of Education. The Department of Usury and Outsourcing Education sounds more fitting with DeVos in charge.
38
Her boss settled -30 million? for defrauded students of Trump U. What a team! a real estate guy blackwater Xe Academy who skips out on contracts, a private army/mercenary guy Eric Prince, connected to DeVos by family, who contracts for multiple millions what our army has to do for grunt pay, a vulture capitalist Ross, and a slum lord Son in law Kushner, a bunch of generals that will revolving door to lucrative careers. The dream team.
26
Hey, American here. I'm getting sicker and sicker of America.
To quote The Clash, "Should I stay or should I go?"
Well, it would be better to stay and fight. We shall stop and banish these hooligans. Eh, it may take a good long time. The fruits of reason ripen slow.
25
@Slipping Glimpser How about for the students:
Career opportunities are ones that never knock,
Every job they give is to keep you off the dock,
Career opportunities are ones that never knock.
DeVos saying students are getting "free money?" Oh, that's rich, coming from someone whose fortune came from defrauding low-income people with a multi-level marketing scheme (Amway).
67
@JamesP\
As a paperboy some 50 years ago I noticed a hand-painted sign on the front lawn of a house where a poor and rather "rough" family lived. It said "AMWAY" and maybe something else, I don't remember. I was already news savvy so I knew that Amway was a pyramid scheme and felt sorry for these people being taken in. So DeVos and family have been deliberately preying on the poor and under-educated for a long time. This is their MO and source of great wealth. Crooks, period. So this most recent DeVos defense of the crooked at the expense of the conned does not come as a surprise.
2
Caveat emptor. The only way to make for profit education honest and borrowers thoughtful about their loans is to get the capitalist system to work. As long as reckless decisions are forgiven there will be no learning. As long as con men can dupe people with no risk they will continue to ply their trade. Stop interfering with markets and let them work.
5
@Ted Weidner
but then you will not have the American version of capitalism if everyone were honest and trustworthy !
@Ted Weidner
Consider or feckless President and his blind deaf supporters. Surely, America, too, has been conned and deserves relief from both.
@Ted Weidner, the schools in question deliberately defrauded their students. This is a criminal act, a form of stealing. Markets don't address crime, the judicial system and the government are charged with that task. Let the government do its job of serving the people - oh wait, the current government only serves robber barrons like DeVos and Trump.
2
Devos is living in an alternate universe. It is one devoid of common sense, empathy, human feelings and better judgment. It is not “The Department of Education is turning a blind eye to widespread fraud and abuse at for-profit schools..." it is Betsy Devos, Donald Trump and the countless gutless wonders who populate the Trump administration. Republicans have lost their minds. I hope they lose the next elections.
38
She's one of the main reasons people turn away from organized religion. So much money, so much greed and yet such a small soul.
44
@Ed I love your comment. So true. I grew up with these people. They have no soul. Empty vessels, all.
10
For-profit colleges? Like the ones the DeVos family are so heavily invested in? One would think that allowing her to "rewrite" the rules would be a major conflict of interest. But business as usual for the cabinet members of the DJT administration.
So many red flags,so little action on the ethics front.
22
The fact is a great many of these students who were defrauded are not going to be able to pay anyway. Will Betsy suggest debtors prisons next. She is clueless and irresponsible.
48
@Gordon Hastings She owns a student loan collection agency.
6
Nice dig for the boss man considering his fake Trump Universities defrauded many many people.
77
Incur debt, pay it back.... with interest.
4
Not if the school went out of business due to fraudulent practices.
9
@MarathonRunner Trump University grads rejoice.
1
So you're against the bankruptcy laws that this (your) president used to dodge his debt and obligations, right?
3
The projected savings to the US government under this plan is $700 Million. Isn't that about what Trump cots the government in golf trips and visits to his various properties?
17
@VCS
Are the taxpayers reimbursed for trips during which he does Trump personal business?
4
Why does this not surprise me? We now have a government that is organized of, by, and for the rich.
Of course, I note that not putting the burden on "hardworking taxpayers" doesn't seem to apply when it involves cleaning up the mess created by Trump's mindless tariffs. But poor students who have been defrauded . . . well, then we have to protect those "hardworking taxpayers," right Betsy?
11
Devos has a conflict of interest. Isn't her family business For profit "colleges" that are dependent upon their students' loans for cash flow?
19
Students should just avoid doing business with any of the for-profit colleges. Boycott them all. It would be better to skip a college education and go to work in the trades than support these evildoers. And as far as Betsy is concerned, I'm sure the Almighty God will rain down a punishment on her that will make what happened to Edith seem like a sugary end.
8
I know DeVos is the bogeywoman is these parts, but when loans don't get paid back, guess who doesn't get loans in the future? I suggest some of her critics read up on the economic principle of moral hazard.
2
@Ed L. Trump doesn’t pay his bills. Bankrupt SIX times?
9
I disagree if the colleges defrauded these students, which it has been proven they did. The founders of these fake colleges should have to repay these loans.
8
@Kat
It isn't about Trump. The wider discussion is college students getting in over their heads with loans and trying to renege on their obligations, and certain "progressives" supporting the notion that those loans should be forgiven (i.e., bailed out by taxpayers).
Can't they just declare bankruptcy........ like Trump?
19
@Gerald Marantz Nope, the Republic Congrease ended that route in 2005 when they enacted the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005....”a major reform of the bankruptcy system, was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush in April 2005. Bankruptcy was reformed in a number of ways, including tighter eligibility requirements. The majority of changes instituted by this new law took effect on October 17, 2005 (180 days after the law was signed), although a few changes took effect immediately after the legislation was signed by the President.”
1
@Gerald Marantz Actually, no. The ability to discharge student loans is extremely limited.
4
@Nancy
That's right. They can garnish your wages until the debt is paid, but don't worry, you probably won't get a job having just defaulted on a loan....
3
There should be some kind of law against super villains having such cutesy sounding names. It’s almost as if Betsy Devos fully intends to perpetuate societal injustices wherever she finds them.
12
Betsy DeVos is opposed to education which to her is anti-Christian.
She is also opposed to money being earned by or given to - or even loaned to - poor people. So her policies always favor concentrating more wealth among the upper 1%. Even though the lending agencies cheated innocent student borrowers, Betsy is opposed to them getting justice in the Courts! This is almost incomprehensible - pure evil.
She is a horrible person who does not represent the values of Jesus Christ as expressed so clearly on his Sermon on the Mount - "Blessed are the the poor for they shall inherit the earth."
In truth, her values are superficial and despicable. She and her Blackwater Brother Eric Prince (Prince of Darkness) are evil personified - perfect representatives for the Satanic Trump Administration.
19
No problem for this sleazy administration to throw 12 Billion at farmers who are in trouble because of Trump's idiocy.
Many years ago I worked for the Feds trying to ride herd on the for-profit "schools" that were robbing Vietnam veterans.
Nothing really changes.
13
Isn't DeVos herself a fraud? Now she's bailing out other frauds? Takes one to protect one.
15
Thank you Betsy! It must be nice to be a millionaire....
6
DeVos is just part of the trump-Republican war on the middle class.
7
Lock her up! DeVoss is committing a crime. Abuse of office. Creating a regulation that provides for fleecing students and enriching criminals. Shame. Adjudicate her.
11
Ah, such a Christian thing. Saint Betsy has reinterpreted Jesus, " Kick them when they're down and enrich your friends by enslaving the poor with debt." It's just sickening.
11
Another Republican violent policy. See https://www.legalreader.com/republican-racketeers-violent-policies/
1
Betsy DeVos is truly disgusting. She is morally rotten, cruel and a danger to America.
14
When will the obscenities cease? The outrages continue. Betsy deVos extends her middle finger to those who work hard harbor dreams but fall prey to the likes of herself, her boss and their ilk.
When will we all congregate in front of the WH to chant “lock HIM up!”
15
I agree with Lamar Alexander that the new rules get the balance right. If it is easy to be granted loan forgiveness, after all, there would be a flood of students claiming it. And it's also important to remember that Obama changed the entire federal loan system so that students who make less owe less. In many cases, student payments are zero, and loans are forgiven after a period of 15 or 20 years.
2
@Rolf I think you should consider the fact that that this is only describing debt forgiveness for students from for profit colleges and not college students in general.
By taking this action any wrong doings by for profit colleges will be kept out of the public eye while forced arbitration will give them full control over a process where the burden of proof is on the student, a burden which would be effectively impossible to achieve given that the school have much more power than the individual.
This new rule will strip all power from students and give these corporations an open field in which their ultimate goal is not the education of students but the generation of profit.
8
@Rolf
"In many cases student payments are zero."
I don't know where you heard that. 6-8 after graduation, you have to start making payments.
What does proving "distress" mean? Starving without any means of shelter or food? Or does it mean living from year to year, without adequate means of self-support AND making debt payments to avoid default? It should mean the latter, but DoE will likely enforce the first.
18
Community colleges are so inexpensive to attend. Why aren't community colleges responding to the interest in higher education with more flexible degree programs that for profit colleges offer? For profit colleges should have no niche at all - they should not exist because community colleges offer the equivalent at 1/10 the cost.
22
@Djt For profits exist because they are advertising to the ignorant. Don't you watch daytime TV? Most of the ignorant do not belong in college and we have all met these people on the job.
The Americans who can only have Gucci want the "well named" school, not community college. Also the standards are lower in the for profit schools.
I have always said Obama did a big disservice to American youth telling them they need a college education. All people need training to do do their jobs, but not all jobs require a college degree... until now. Since Obama pushed for college, everyone needs a college degree to even get a job at Target.
God bless Trump and DeVos. They are doing a great job of taking care of their own. Makes you miss Bobby Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson.
@Djt
Community colleges are indeed the answer for low income students. Unfortunately, they are government funded and don't have unlimited capacity. Moreover, some students fall prey to aggressive recruiting practices by for-profit schools. When was the last time you saw an ad for a community college on TV?
4
It stands to reason that a fraud of an Education Secretary appointed by a fraudulent President would be in favor of defrauding students.
39
This another terrible policy that is being enacted while the Trump Show is obscuring atrocities.
24
The Trump Administration lowers corporate tax rates, then penalizes debt-ridden students to reduce the deficit.
17
the next logical step is to waive all taxes on for profit universities and charter schools, paid for by taxing the public ones.
7
This is terrible. My daughter is almost to the end of a 10yr payment plan at 500.00 a month for the degree she earned in Sociology. No one should be put thru this.
9
@Kathryn
No one should have to pay back his loans? I hope you aren't a bank executive.
1
How can this vile woman get it wrong every single time she does anything?
Even a broken clock is right twice a day. She can only dream of that level of success.
39
So the president and founder of Trump University, that money pit for misled, trusting students, wants bilked students to prove that they were misled?
Really, Kafka couldn't come up with this stuff!
50
It is look like a woman is being rape. She complained to the police. She got the following answer: Madame you will have to prove yourself that you have been victim of a rape and then we will take action. In other words, if the new rules are adopted, the Department of Education will be asking the defraud students to do the job themselves.
4
We cannot pay for every stupid decision people make.
2
We should recover as much from the fraudulent schools and their founders as possible.
2
@WillT26
We pay for every stupid decision banks make.
...and there it is, right in the middle of the article in DeVos’ own words. The dog-whistle to today’s conservatives: Obama... free money.
The notion that “undeserving” people are getting free stuff at “our” expense is the underlying message of most policies under this conflict-ridden, self dealing and corrupt administration.
41
Amway, Blackwater and for profit educational institutions ...... the things that make America great?,then crush our young people in debt, another variant of slavery .
38
Only in Trump America could someone as ignorant and unqualified as this moron DeVos be the Secretary of Education! It is so embarrassing to be an American with Trump and psycho associates in the W.H.!
24
Providing cover for fraudsters.
Typical Trump move.
29
"Clear and convincing evidence." There's plenty of it out there.
The standard should be based on loans obtained to attend Trump University. Other than those pertaining to bankruptcy law, the degrees have proven to have no value. Students who borrowed to pursue such an education should have their debts forgiven.
21
Could we apply some of these strict standards to Trump’s multiple bankruptcies?
17
The echelons of policy hypocrisy. Never a day in her life has Betsy Devos been in debt yet she ‘leads’ a Department proposing to make getting out of debt more difficult for those who can least afford more debt.
NO COLLUSION WITH THOUGHTFUL REASON!
5
so perfect. so symmetrical. so blatant. not even any pretense of education anymore.
8
Not sure how this helps MAGA once again special interests wins over the individual. In this case it is someone pursuing the American dream through higher education. Unfortunately, the for profit college has proven a failure for many and is significantly more expensive than public college. Yet less guarantee that you will benefit from the education. Just look at Trump University as an example.
9
I am not a fan of Ms. DeVos, but that headline is utter nonsense. Agree with her or not, her proposal asks (not unreasonably) that someone seeking debt relief prove they were defrauded. The headline assumes fraud into evidence. Disappointing "journalism," to say the least.
1
Just another example of the kind of cold hearted miscreant currently holding a place in the Trump Administration.
14
I don't think this is sooo terrible. People took out loans and promised to repay them. Even though they made those decisions based on bad knowledge, I think people should keep their promise and repay them if they can. If they have signficant hardship, then yes, I think there should recourse for help, but it shouldn't be automatic.
I took out a bunch of loans for a useless master's degree at a local for-profit. Luckily, I was still able to command an $80K salary due to my previous work experience (not my master's), and could easily make the payments.
I was misled about the value of my degree, but I took out the loans voluntarily (dumb decision though it was). I don't think I deserved to have my loans forgiven, nor do I think other people's loans should be forgiven if they can pay them back.
4
This isn’t just about the students, who are now being unjustly asked to confirm that they can’t pay back their loans.
This is also about the thousands of people - often recent former students themselves - who are now working at call centers at the noble job of cold calling anyone who’s gotten a loan in the past decade or two to see if they need student debt forgiveness.
These people are doing God’s work. Because how many people realize that they might be eligible? What’s going to happen to these people if this program becomes more stringent? What’s going to happen to their aggressive outreach program? Which is totally necessary by the way.
Because let’s face it, most people assume that when you take a loan out for something like an education, you need to pay it back. That making use of an education - no matter how it was delivered - is on the buyer. That claiming you were defrauded by a college is kind of absurd.
These are outmoded, bad ideas. But they’re widespread. It’s similar to the NINA loans and ARMs that were doled out to lower income people in 2002-2007. They had no way of knowing what they were getting into! It’s not like they - or these defrauded students - are fully functioning humans with normal IQ ranges. We’re basically talking about children here.
They need to be taken care of, cradle to grave. And who’s going to take care of them if not some noble soul working out of a debt forgiveness call center or Federal aid program?
2
Most for-profit schools appear to be a fraud.
They are unnecessary,
They should all be outlawed.
The same service is almost always available at a community college at a much lower cost
12
trump needs the money to buy soy beans.
7
How do the proposed regulations make Betsy DeVos more money?
5
So her family is in the student debt collecting business as well. They seem to have a penchant for despicable businesses. LOCK HER UP
19
So, the ultra-rich DeVos (who knows almost nothing about public education and the needs of poor students) is taking away the ability for poor students to be protected from the actions of predatory for-profit college corporations. And, her main "advisors" in this action are the very people who used to work for these criminal enterprises masquerading as for-profit colleges who bilked students out of tuition.
If this is not a blatant conflict of interest and clear evidence of the swamp creatures who run the Trump administration, nothing is.
Draining the swamp all right. The entire Trump administration is a swamp of corruption, conflicts of interest, greed, influence peddling, and self interest above service to country. These people have no shame.
12
This is the same person who said there's no free lunch for little kids in school. Heartless snake!
17
There is something very wrong with Betsy DeVos. I can't understand how someone can be so cruel and so menacing - it's as if her goal in life is to be a cartoon villain. She is a sick human being and really needs to be admitted someplace where her mental instability can be attended to. The fact that she holds an ounce of power is an affront to the human race.
7
Let them eat cake!
3
Why am I not surprised? As I scroll down the page it just gets more, and more, and ..... (ad nauseam) depressing. There really is no bottom in the Trump Cesspool!
8
Why do we have these cracker-jack educational facilities in the first place? Why not everyone go to college or junior college?
4
Of course DeVos does not want people who have been hoodwinked by the likes of Trump University to be relieved of debt accumulated for passing riches on to fraudsters. Trump himself is a fraudulent President put in with a big assist from our countries mortal enemy and until uneducated White folk figure that out we are on a doomed path.
11
A complete incompetent who knows NOTHING about the education system. That is unless it is her own awful record with for profit schools.
An ignorant woman without compassion for those trying their best to get an education in this country.
Another example of a Trump hack.
SHAMEFUL!
14
When will middle and lower income Tump voters understand the fraud perpetrated by this White House, though policy after policy that has made those voters ‘ lives harder in every way?
9
Do you think monsters know they are monsters?
30
Simple question for Ms DeVos:
“Why?!”
6
Have to pay for farmer welfare somehow!!
17
Betsy DeVos is to quality public education as Scott Pruitt was to the environment.
90
Blah Blah. She is a rich lady doing the bidding of for-profit corporations. End of story. Lock her up! Betsy belongs in the clink.Bye bye after the mid-terms, I hope.
14
What is needed immediately is stop the bleeding. Stop the parent plus and grad student loans for excessive amounts.
1
$12B in taxpayer money to cushion the swing this administration took at farmers while it simultaneously withdraws support for people seeking education.
It makes perfect sense if you don't really think about it.
9
Will she support suspension of debt relief for big corporations like Trump's various entities that run to bankruptcy for debt relief.
6
@Larry Weeks
Never! Corporations don't lose anything when they declare bankruptcy. They get to keep their wealth/properties.
The little guy gets his wages garnished and his house taken from the bank.
Long live the American way!
5
This wouldn’t have anything to do with Trump University, would it? When is the the media going to question How Trump’s business interests may be influencing his policy decisions?
6
1. Don't allow for profit schools to defraud students.
2. Don't charge exorbitant interest on student loans on the backs of students who are trying to start their lives.
3. Make higher education affordable. Truly affordable. Or free. Everyone benefits from a well-educated citizenry. It also ensures young adults have disposable income to put back into the economy.
11
And yet Trump has filed for bankruptcy how many times? Federal law for decades has been one canNOT bankrupt out of student loans.
Debtor prisons aka Charles Dickens are sadly already here - especially in the South.
9
I think what DeVos means when she says that the "educational" institutions that defrauded the students will be held responsible is that its owners must repay the government loans if corporate bankruptcy is insufficient to effect that.
After all, SCOTUS said that Hobby Lobby shareholders have moral responsibility for what the corporation does and thus are entitled to deny birth control that they find morally reprehensible. There's no separation between a corporation and its owners. So why shouldn't the shareholders of these fraudulent schools be held responsible to reimburse the students they scammed?
She wants individual responsibility on the part of corporate management and investors. After all, ignorance is no excuse. They should have done their own homework about the product they were selling.
I am sure that is what she intends and where she is going.
I am sure that is what she intends and where this will be going.
8
@Christine: Yeah, right. In your dreams. It's a good solution, though. Too bad DeVos is so much on the side of the fraudulent for profit schools that the could never imagine holding them - or their owners and investors - liable.
8
The cruelty and pettiness of this is mind-boggling. These students are our future; if we help them,we will reap rich rewards,as we did with the GI Bill. Education is an investment that pays and pays;it should be strongly encouraged.
33
Charge taxpayers $12 billion to rescue farmers whose livelihood Trump's tariff war attacked
Put 2.6 million jobs in jeopardy from that same reality tv tariff war
Bill close to a trillion dollars for defense while destroying relationships with our allies
Add a trillion and a half dollars to the deficit to give tax cuts to the ultra-rich
But leave Trump University-like fake colleges free to cheat students who, arguably, are working harder than anyone to try to get a leg up.
The best thing to do? Start billboard campaigns warning students of the danger of for-profit colleges and broadcast the benefits of community colleges instead. That will get DeVos' for-profit college cronies where it hurts - their wallets.
9
Ah, yes, all this is to prevent « hardworking taxpayers » from having to foot the bill. Meanwhile today’s paper tells how the corporate share of federal tax revenues is hitting an all time low and the deficit ballooning to a trillion. The disconnect is mind-boggling,
20
This administration tried to pass regulations like this in the dark. Now they have officially come out of the dark and no longer hide their attempts to promote business interests out in the open. Clearly Ms. DeVos has a vested interest in for profit schools, even those who defraud students. The idea that the student has to show "reckless disregard only makes it that much harder for the student who was hurt by the fraud. Where is congress, where is the out rage. I guess deregulating EPA regulations on clean air and water, backing down on the endangered species act and now telling students that they have no person to blame but themselves for getting duped by a for profit school doesn't concern or legislative leaders. The Mid terms can't get here fast enough.
10
Crony capitalism at work.
Pay day lenders and for profit colleges that saddle students with debt but no jobs. Nice cabinet there, Mr President.
7
Rather in-character for this regime. When the regime is out, they must be prosecuted.
5
This is nothing more or less than giving an outright license to steal to predatory lenders. Fraud is fraud--it's wrongful behavior in and of itself, for which the victim is entitled to relief, regardless of his or her own financial situation with respect to creditors. Will there ever be one day where we're not confronted by yet another outrage perpetrated by the current administration?
29
If Betsy DeVos is so concerned about taxpayer dollars, why did she end Dept. of Ed. agreements to work with CFPB?
9
Nice to see a billionaire taking away debt relief for people who can't pay their bills. Are you tired of all the winning yet?
10
@dolly patterson
I'm replying here b/c of 'reply' space limitations.
With all due respect - and I agree with your sentiments wholeheartedly - you and I and everyone else who feels outraged by what's been happening need to do more than point out the obvious. Trump and his minions are shameless, the pseudo Christians who assume from the outset that their 'christianity' endows them with some moral authority are by nature hypocrites and are unlikely ever to change.
Our task now is to develop simple and effective ways to articulate our anger so that others who may be swayed can easily see and understand why Trump is such a disaster. Yes, his persistent mendacity is effective, but it's not invincible. Truth and reason will prevail, but not on their own. They need to be weaponized, perhaps using the same techniques as Trump and Fox and Sinclair et al.
9
Are you kidding me? This administration wants to pardon and push legislation for for-profit universities but want to penalize those who are defrauded by them? Wow. I remember when people claimed it was a blessing to be born in this country... it is becoming a curse each year that goes by. Of course most people can't even afford to pick up and leave so they're stuck dealing with what I want to call crimes against humanity.
28
DeVoss is a proven investor in the for-profit school system and the school loan industry. More GOP welfare for the corrupt.
11
This woman has a heart of stone.
19
The common parlance for this is "blame the victim". Something I might add the GOP is exceptionally good at.
51
What is wrong with all these Cabinet members that they so easily side with business over the citizens of this country..every single time?
15
@Mike
Businesses are 1st class citizens. We the People, not so much.
9
Trump and the Republican Party are relentless in their obsession to shake, steal or enable the defrauding of every last penny out of our personal piggy banks. Including generations to come with their rich donor tax cuts leading to unprecedented skyrocketing deficits. That is their sole mission in seeking the power of government.
20
We deserve the government we vote for or in the case of millennials the one we don’t bother to vote for
4
Gee, too bad these defrauded students can’t claim that they were farmers so that Trump would try to buy their votes.
7
Another example of how Trump is looking after "the small people."
Trump/GOP motto: "No Billionaire Left Behind."
20
Exactly what we should expect from the KLEPTOCRATIC KAKISTOCRACY, courtesy of the AMORAL GOP.
Kleptocratic: Agovernment or state in which those in power exploit national resources and steal; rule by a thief or thieves.
Kakistocracy: A system of government which is run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens.
7
Seems to me DeVos and Trump both were owners of private "colleges" and should be prevented from making policies or decisions about their victims.
25
Since the Trump administration hates mainstream media-let's see what they think of regular old Wikipedia combating Betsy DeVos' friends' colleges:
"The for-profit educational industry has received severe negative criticism because of its sales techniques, high costs, and poor student outcomes. In some cases operators of for-profit colleges have faced criminal charges or other legal sanctions.[1][2][3][4][5]
Since 2010, for-profit colleges have received greater scrutiny and negative attention from the US government, state Attorneys General, the media, and scholars.[6][7] However, the Donald Trump administration and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos have accused the government of regulatory overreach and have loosened regulations.[8]
In 2016, research by Treasury Department economist Nicholas Turner and George Washington Universityeconomist Stephanie Riegg Cellini found that students who attended for-profit colleges would have been better off not going to college at all, or attending a community college (which are non-profit); put differently, the for-profit colleges left students worse off than they were when they started."
As I wrote in my non-Wikipedia comment- run a campaign warning students of the dangers of for-profit colleges and push them towards public community colleges instead. That will hurt DeVos, Trump and their cronies where it counts.
15
How will this impact the defrauded students of Trump U?
13
@M E R
And other for profits where she has friends.
4
What surprises me is that anyone is surprised. Another day, another way Trump shows his disdain for the 99%.
19
If there is a god, this creature DeVos is definitely headed for hell. What a miserable piece of work she is.
27
The government should not be guaranteeing any loans to for profit colleges. Their purpose is to profit, not to teach. If the government actually wants to guarantee the loan they should underwrite the recipient of the funds. The for profit college has no incentive to care about the student's ability to actually repay the loan.
36
First, we need to end using federal loan being used at for profit schools. This is just a government hand out to the companies that run these "diploma mills." Second, we need to hold colleges and universities accountable by making them liable for paying back a portion of the loans. This might stop them from accepting students who are not capable of doing work at the college level and get back to the business of providing an education in the true sense of the word.
66
Why? Is this a platform of the GOP. The 7th amendment gives you the right to seek monetary damages when you’ve been wronged. These students deserved to be repaid by the people who stole their money. It’s called justice. This is the problem when you equate money with free speech and grant bill of rights protection to corporations and lobbying. You are saying some have more free speech than others, even if they (corporations) can’t vote.
109
Meanwhile Assange is about to be evicted from the Ecuadorean Embassy; extradited to US. Wave 'bye bye' to press freedoms.
Chelsea Manning's incarceration as a whistle blower was inhumane, brutal, condemned by the UN, civilized countries around the world. Assange's imprisonment will make Chelsea's look like a cakewalk.
1
@JRoebuck
Don't worry, I am sure Trump is working with McConnell and Ryan to find a way for Corporations to vote.
I think the question will next be how to arrange that the number of votes one has is based on one's net worth. No more "one person, one vote"; probably more like "one million dollars, one vote", and, of course, if you don't have the million dollars, No Vote for You!
6
I do think Asange is an anti-democracy, Russian stooge. I don’t think his actions are altruistic by any stretch.
3
DeVos should propose that defrauded students be matriculated at trump university.
13
Seems to me it has already been established these "institutions intended to mislead" borrowing students.
34
Remember that Donald Trump created a fake for-profit university, Trump University, that was never accredited, never licensed & offered sham courses? In 'business' from 2005-2010 before the number of consumer complaints meant it had to close, Trump U. faced 3 lawsuits, including for racketeering and false claims. Two of the suits came from the federal govt and one was a suit against Trump personally. Trump finally agreed to settle 2 of the lawsuits in November 2016 for $25 million.
Why anyone voted for Donald Trump knowing this - it was all public knowledge by the time the election rolled around - is bizarre. Trump's a fraud who's made his money by defrauding people - like who've founded for-profit colleges. Of course his administration would protect the universities against the duped students.
And in case you think this is just Trump, take a good look at the Republican Party. While running for president in 2012, Mitt Romney was a public shill for a for-profit college founded by a friend, a hedge-fund manager, praising the college profusely at campaign events. Romney has criticized Trump as a fraudster not fit to be president, but
Romney has no problem endorsing sleazy for-profit colleges when it suits his purpose. Bill Clinton also got into the act, praising for-profit colleges.
If those names don't tell you everything you need to know, where have you been?
34
Here they go again—someone explain to me once and for all why there was a Trump sticker on a beat up old car at the supermarket today.
DeVos would never have been known to most of us if not for Trump and his need to have the most sadistic and ignorant of wealthy loyalists surrounding him in his quest to make America suffer.
I can ubderstand people like Betsy DeVos sticking with him, but there seems to be no one so skilled at understanding the inner workings of the human brain who can help me make sense out of that bumper sticker.
14
I don't think this woman has one ounce of passion and/or compassion for education and/or America's students. She shd be working to make education as available as possible, which includes making education as financially inexpensive as possible.
Shame on her for being such a Trump puppet! And she claims to be a Christian.....when has she ever demonstrated attitudes or actions which align w those of Jesus?
91
@dolly patterson I grew up in this environment. DeVos has no compassion for anybody unless they are rich and most important, belong to the right church. I learned this when I was six years old and attacked after visiting their church a block from my house. Yes, in bygone days children were allowed to explore a bit. Six year old children can be vicious, but oh, how do they love their Jesus.
2
Don't forget her brother is Erik Prince of Blackwater fame - actually infamy. Prince met early on with Trump offering to set up a ' private' military force for Trump to implement wherever he wished in the world.
8
All I can say is “See you next Tuesday!”.
2
Taxpayers should not pay the damages for fraud committed by for-profit colleges. If that were the rule, we would be liable to the students at Trump University. And if it applied to all for-profit companies, we would be on the hook to smokers defrauded by tobacco companies. Government assistance to borrowers should be based on their inability to pay back their loans, period. You help the needy. The hoodwinked should be on their own.
14
Spoken by someone who clearly doesn’t have any significant amount of student debt. Education is not a choice like smoking, and schools need to go through a vetting process to be eligible to receive federal funds. If those schools are no longer found to be eligible due to fraud, why should the student, or graduate, with the damaged educational reputation, be on the hook for shareholders’ greed?
167
@michjas
Even when the Federal Government aided and abetted the for profit colleges fraud?
11
@michjas Well, since our current president was involved in the fraudulent for-profit "university" business and appears to continue to pursue things with the same level of integrity, the citizens who voted for him are among the hoodwinked. Are we on our own? and what does this even mean? The fact that you seem to avoid recognizing is that students had government loans to attend such businesses as Trump U. Thus, the government was effectively giving such operations a seal of authenticity.
I don't get the tobacco company point. If the government was supporting tobacco farmers with subsidies, that would seem to be a similar case. Oh, wait...
9
Forgive all federal student loan debt, no questions asked. Force banks that received bailout money to forgive all the private student loan debt that they created!
31
@Lyle Rainwater Not really the point of this article, but banks didn't create the debt. Students did.
Solution is simple go to a school you can afford. You have a choice in education, make a good decision.
@Gary, Gary says: “Solution is simple go to a school you can afford. You have a choice in education, make a good decision.”
Good thinking! Of course, if you cannot afford any school, just make the good decision of doing without an education. No education may mean few if any job prospects but, the bright side of that cloud, is that you may be eligible for welfare and the excitement of living on the edge of poverty. But, hey, that’s your problem not mine.
Just another item on the long list of things that need to be remedied once the current nightmare ends.
Obama inherited an unprecedented collection of messes from the last Bush administration, and that he was able to get things sort of back to normal was an accomplishment that has never been properly recognized.
Whoever follows Trump will have an even more daunting task.
107
Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. She is an expert on defrauding those needing an education as is the so-called president. And now she is demanding proof. My advice to M. DeVos is that she retake home ec. (after returning to the schools), learn how to clean the kitchen this time, and then invite others over for dinner.
Totally ludicrous she is!
10
If a President can use bankruptcy to stiff his creditors, so should students.
64
Are you aware over 60,000 Americans are currently having their minimalist Social Security payments garnished for Federally guaranteed loans? I believe the maximum Uncle Sam can steal from these elderly, disabled, struggling Americans is 25%.
6
There are many Americans 'struggling' with student debt. Some people with educations from good schools, but in the wrong subject, doing work that doesnt require an education. They did more things right than those who chose their education from a daytime tv commercial.
The issue I have with forgiving loans from colleges deemed "fraudulent" is that it is, in effect, rewarding the least intelligent people, those who couldn't figure out that they were in a racket. That is the foundational creed of the left, and why so many people find it immoral and detestable. There's nothing wrong with wanting to reward the hardest-working and smartest, not the dumbest (and this is also different from rewarding the already-wealthy). Thank you Sec. DeVos!!!
1
Yeah, maybe they aren’t the best and brightest but here they are trying to improve themselves and broaden their prospects and with the help of the Federal government and predatory lenders they are marked for a con. Essentially these poor borrowers are being signed up for indentured servitude. What a humiliating betrayal.
5
@sean
Perhaps this program would make a bit more sense if it was coupled with criminal prosecution of the fraudsters that ran these institutions. As it is it is just a program to punish the defrauded and let the criminals off scot free, pocketing their ill gotten gains with no consequences. In other words encourage more bad behavior by rewarding it.
3
@sean
Right you are,sir! And if you happen to leave your door unlocked some evening, it's on your head when you are robbed blind. Don't even think about calling the police. You had it coming!
4
This is unconscionable. While I still think these students should've known better what they were getting into with these sketchy schools, the federal government body who loaned them the money needs to suck it up and take the loss.
I live in a city that has benefited immensely from her family's generous philanthropy, but Betsy DeVos is a disgrace. Shame on her!
17
@Midwest Josh
I see philanthropy from all these rich people as a means to wash their sins, so to speak. Just like during Renaissance - wealthy people would build churches/basilicas to make good with god. Gotta do some pretty bad things to think that building a church would save your soul.
5
I doubt the soybean farmers will have to prove that Trump acted with reckless disregard to receive relief. DeVos is just trying to protect her fellow scam artists.
15
This proudly aloof and ignorant monstrosity of an Education Secretary is merely emblematic of the contempt for fair and equitable governance, respect for expertise and science (or in this case pedagogy) that we're seeing virtually across the board in this derelict administration led by the proud derelict in chief. Its mantra is to undo anything that smacks of social fairness and opportunity, in other words, any of the enlightened output of the Obama years.
15
DeVos should be shutting off government loans to these scammers. As for those who believe they were scammed, they should indeed prove harm and have their loans abated proportionately.
1
Government of the rich, by the rich and for the rich.
“Every man is a king so long as he has someone to look down on.”
― Sinclair Lewis, It Can't Happen Here
60
Why do Republicans want to limit education to rich people? Could it be that they want only white rich men to rule the country? Keeping the rest of us ignorant by making education unaffordable and sabotaging public schools seems like a way to accomplish that.
53
Thank goodness for Betsy DeVos. Someone's got to get the serfs back on the land, toiling without relief for their debt masters.
(For those not adept at recognizing sarcasm, this is meant to be tragically ironic.)
26
Maybe she should be looking at fraud in the for-profit education industry...
11
“All one had to do was raise his or her hands to be entitled to so-called free money.”
This from the daughter of a billionaire, who married another billionaire. Never attended a public school, nor did any of her children. How did we get to this point?
63
@Fred C
It's called capitalism.
4
Ever notice how little difference there is between Republicans and organized crime?
33
Talk about the fox guarding the henhouse. Devos's cronies who have been ripping off students for years with their bogus for profit colleges are now writing re-writing the rules to keep themselves safe. Par for the course in this corrupt, despicable administration. Students and parents, you must be vigilant when searching for a school. don't let Devos' predators get the best of you
54
Makes one wonder if she has penciled in some type of retroactive rule that would negate the rulings against Trump U? hmmmm.....wonder.....
9
Is there any hateful, backward, fraud-rewarding policy which will not be embraced by this administration? What is wrong with these people?! They are like cartoon villains, each racing to see who can do the best imitation of Snidely Whiplash. How can this be real?
17
From Elizabeth Warren's questioning of Betsy Devoss during her confirmation hearings:
Elizabeth Warren: "Mrs. Devos, have you ever taken out a student loan from the federal government to help pay for colege?"
Betsy Devoss: "I have not."
Elizabeth Warren: "Have any of your children had to borrow money in order to go to college?"
Betsy Devoss: "They have been fortunate not to."
96
They've never flown commercial either, I'll wager.
13
@Bret In other words, Betsy knows nothing of the burden of having the yoke of a massive debt resting upon one neck. Nor does she care about its negative ramifications to our society as a whole.
6
She’s a billionaire, what does she have to worry about?
11
“Let them eat cake.”
What an outrage. Again and again, the Trump administration bangs on the heads of the less fortunate in our society. Venality run amok.
34
Young people: pay attention and do not forget. Republicans are and have always been for the wealthy and powerful. You must carry the almost forgotten legacy of FDR forward. My generation failed and now we are nothing more than a bulge in the snake, self-interested and enfeebled, waiting to be digested and excreted. Good riddance.
16
@War-like Siward
I remember Mitt Romney's bus being on campus at UFL during the 2012 campaign. Could not believe students were working for this guy/ Republicans! This guy said that if you cannot afford college, maybe you shouldn't go to college.
4
@D Your generation has great potential to change this country for the better. I hope to see it and help if I can.
2
@War-like Siward
I hope that, too!
Won’t help the Trump University victims.
10
Watch for Trump University” to make a comeback!
11
Another member of the Trump Criminal Cartel who Trumpublican senators knew was manifestly unfit for the post and confirmed her anyway (with Pence's sycophantic tie-breaking aid.) She was picked for the same reason Zinke, Pruitt and Price were appointed: destroy their agencies & turn them into ATMs for the plutocrats. For the love of God, America - vote this trash out.
74
Amway anyone?
10
DeVos should be required to take an IQ test and share the results with the American public. She doesn't seem to comprehend and retain information.
11
Again....another clear example of an amoral person who thrives on putting her boot on the human face.......most of her own riches made through conning others...must be great to wake up every morning to find that you have directly or indirectly caused harm to another few thousand people.
14
This absurdly greedy administration is doing everything possible to stick it to the 99 percent, which the 1 percent views as nothing but a nuisance. Regardless of financial situation, being defrauded in the first place should be grounds for debt relief on money that was borrowed under the guise of getting a worthwhile education. The depths that DeVos & Co. are willing to sink to to further their for-profit agenda makes me sick.
19
You can't get more black and white than that.
7
One more program initiated by the Obama administration that may help people down the toilet.
1
Helping (working) people down the toilet is a chief objective of the Trump administration. So far it's working as planned. See MG's comment above re: Trump bumper stickers and look what's happening to farmers and businesses affected by his tariffs.
6
She acts like she is being affected by all this. She definitely took the loyalty pledge to get this job. She has no sympathy for the students of fraud. trump University was found guilty of fraud & trump had to settle. Other students should have the same rights as the trump ones. She doesn't want public schools, she wants worker education. Shades of dictatorship...keep the people ignorant but trained to work for low wages for the administration (maybe in coal mines). Can the people not sue to have her dismissed from her position? Or start suing like crazy to keep her & her department bogged down for years.
11
Sincere question: does Ms DeVos and this administration want to actually help students become educated citizens capable of critical and informed reasoning - or hinder it?
I've heard most dictators prefer their citizens to be uninformed and unable to have access to real and objective facts.
8
@Barbara Brundage - remember the three slogans of Oceania's ruling party:
War is Peace.
Slavery is Freedom.
Ignorance is Strength.
10
Given that the two for-profit college chains are no longer in business, how does one go about proving that they were defrauded by them?
10
@Reasoned And Rational
If there's no one representing those out-of-business chains, who will be there to contradict the students and the evidence they offer of fraud?
Can't be the Dep't of Education, they weren't there. I think sympathetic judges will give full weight to the testimony and evidence of the students.
2
DeVos is clueless about her duties and the least qualified for her job. She is destroying any and all benefits for schools and students with no understanding (or caring?) of the impact she is having on education. This is just another brick in the wall she is determined to tear down.
9
I'm thoroughly convinced; Betsy DeVos is a caring, sharing person.
Herein she demonstrates her aptitude for caring to share pain. Afflicting those least able to defend themselves against economic hardship - anything else would be free and unfair.
6
Tell me again why “regular” people voted for this man? Seriously, if you are not a corporation or one of the 1%, I don’t know what you are getting out off this relationship. Add in the news of how the deficit is going to balloon next year due to these tax cuts. The continued work to deprive us of health care, the destruction of the environment. The negative affects already of these tariffs. The continued chatter about “reforming” social security and Medicare.....one can go on and on.
All this faith in a man who inherited his wealth and went on to declare bankruptcy multiple times.
12
Is this a joke? At this point I can't tell anymore. It's a game, how much can they get away with favoring the rich and powerful and still win elections, right?
14
Debt bondage and reform attempts are as old as time, or at least as old as settled living. The elites use their control of land and resources to subjugate those below them. Lives and livelihoods on the line, people will agree to terms so onerous as to leave them perpetually in debt and forced to sell out their futures and sometimes even their very children. People like Solon in ancient Greece and Obama in the 21st century enact reforms but the cycle inevitably repeats.
Betsy DeVos, a wealthy Amway heiress and committed hardline Christian (whatever that means), must believe indebted students will get their just rewards in the afterlife. She certainly doesn't want them to breathe free in this life, even if victims of manifest fraud.
19
Wow, she is amazing, a fantastic heartless, greedy, human being. All this means that even after being defrauded by a school you will have to PROVE that the College knowingly defrauded the student. This is outrageous , insane, and with no logic. They are making america great again, for the wealth, privileged, non poor Americans.
I am feel bad for you who is in financial difficult and had higher education as path for a better life, now the odds are much much much higher ...
10
Why should the Feds, aka the taxpayer, bail out students who feel defrauded? Why can't they sue - indidually or as part of a class action - like any other fraud claimant?
3
@Kurfco,
Sue individually - obvious, too expensive unless the injured party is wealthy.
Class action suit - have you noticed how many contracts now require the individual to sign away this remedy? That contractual provision is designed to allow the type of scam that for-profit colleges put over. For the continued legality of these provisions, You may thank Republican-appointed judges, and Republican legislators acting in the interest of sketchy businesses, not in the interest of individual constituents.
8
@Kurfco
The taxpayers bail out corporations that stiff their pensioners, sticking it to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. Why should students be held to a higher standard than CEOs?
5
The Trump Two - Step to MAGA - Education edition.
Betsy DeVos - Arranger and Choreographer
Step one - remove protections and make it easier for fraudulent "Trump University" clones to fleece their students via Student loans.
Step two - Help these "schools" and their loan shark "lenders" collect the vig from their unsuspecting marks.
Here we go
A one, two, three....
11
For-profit online universities were outright scams that needed students for only one purpose: to get their Social Security Numbers for federally backed student loans.
They didn't care if the students learned a single thing (most didn't) or earned an unrecognized degree (most didn't) or paid back their loans (most didn't). Either way, they got paid. Thanks, Federal Government.
Betsy DeVos is trying to do the same thing with public education at the K-12 level. Couple for-profit charter schools with "school choice" vouchers, and billions in property taxes can be shifted away from public schools to private. It's enough to make a billionaire quiver.
They've already done it with prisons as well. The genius of the plan is that the substandard, gutted schools become a perfect feeder to the private prisons. It's like printing your own money.
19
Perfect move on her part (1) encourage so call privatization, where cons like Trump University can exploit people, and then (2) deny debt relief so the scammers can keep their money.
Is this a move aimed to benefit Trump University?
7
I love how students struggling to pay back loans to predatory for-profit schools somehow don’t qualify as “hardworking taxpayers”.
This is what happens when “never worked a day in their life tax evaders, heirs and heiresses” run the show.
99
if you want to help the economy all student loans should be forgiven, so grads can join the main stream and afford to have a life.
the banks dont need this money nor does de vos
9
This is exactly why a billionaire should not be in this position. She is clueless to any issue outside of her privilege bubble.
16
Get this scheming, no nothing woman away from the power to harm students in debt. They need relief not condemnation.
8
This will be the bankruptcy generation. Greed is and will be the absolute downfall of America.
10
This is despicable. Colleges acting in completely bad faith can defraud unsuspecting students, and those students will have NO remedy. Under revisions to bankruptcy laws, students cannot discharge educational loan debts. If you're a wealthy real estate developer, say, and you declare bankruptcy seven times, it's totally fine to leave others with the bill and walk away unscathed yourself. But a working mother who takes classes at night at one of these immoral "colleges" that promise her the moon - well, those students should have known better. It's like telling someone they can't get their possessions back if their house is robbed; they needed better locks.
Ms. DeVos's new rules are utterly immoral, and are yet another example of President Trump and his allies privileging wealthy (and politically connected) corporate interests over working Americans.
We need to find a new word for "shame."
16
Trump admin are all a single hydra-headed Voldemort, suddenly in power. Sickening.
8
Debt relief is only for rich people. Just ask the Republican president.
557
@Vanessa Hall. I mostly agree but---with the recent decision to give an extra 12 million to farmers hurt by tariffs--I might argue that relief also applies to people like to vote red in 2018 and beyond.
9
That $12b will likely go to agribusiness at large scale. Don't hold your breath waiting for it to be distributed to small farms.
11
That would be 12 billion, not 12 million. Many times the amount of money we are talking about here. Does ot surprise anyone that the Trump Administration prioritizes wealthy scammers over students?
7
Amway Pyramid Scheme rules are now in effect per the Amway Scamming Queen.
We must protect the fraudulent predator class, not the average poor American trying to improve his/her future.
In April 2015, Corinthian Colleges, Inc. (CCi) was fined almost $30 million by the U.S. Department of Education. The department found the school had misled students and loan agencies about the prospects for graduates to find jobs. Within two weeks, the college shut down.
Betsy DeVos wants the next Corinthian Colleges, Inc. (CCi) to have a great chance at committing the next college fraud for profit.
"Only the worst conceivable people" in the Trump Administration.
D to go forward; R for the great Republican Rip-Off of America and Americans.
400
@Socrates
If we ever get our country back, I would love to see all of those who confirmed this administration’s band of corporate raiders held accountable for an attack on our country.
The confirmation hearings clearly showed the criminal minds of all of these evil people, and yet they were confirmed.
The evidence is there, and they all should be found guilty.
1
College costs and student loans are in the process of creating a whole generation of people in financial distress. It's no longer that just tier one colleges and universities are out of the average student's financial reach, it's local and state colleges that are at the point. It's not uncommon to find students anywhere from $100K-$200K in debt leaving college with only a bachelors degree. Forget it if you have to obtain a post graduate degree.
It's also difficult on the parents that try and help there kids out with parent plus loans at 7% or higher interest rates.
This is a national catastrophy in the making. Wages are stagnant yet college tuition go up every year.
If you want to know why other countries are becoming more technologically advanced , just look at our student debt to income ratio.
130
It is a catastrophe! They really don't care. This gen will not buy houses, have furniture or have children. Yet somehow it is all okay with the master class. Because they intend to be slumlords and hand their own children billions. But their mistake? Rich people's kids are usually worthless. So our leading superior position in the world - very precarious. There will not be any future Steve Jobs, for example.
9
@VMG
there was a time when you went to a college you could afford without crippling debt. I once read about a woman who went to a private for profit school to study sociology or some something you can't get job in. She studied abroad & ended up starting a gofundme page & asking for donations on the internet to pay off her loan. Don't go to a school that charges hundreds of thousands when there are really good universities that have programs just like the expensive private for profit schools. Parents don't co-sign these loans. Make kids support their own education if they go the expensive route.
2
@T West "There will not be any future Steve Jobs, for example." Actually, there probably will be - just not in this country.
1
What did Trump say? He'd only get "the best" people for his government. This is as good as he can do? REALLY?
124
@BA Ya gotta admit, it is really hard to find people this far off the normal curve so often.
9
In Trump world, the richer you are the better you are. Actual morality is irrelevant.
15
Sure. They're the best thieves he could find. Those who aren't as shallow and cruel as he probably fantasize about new ways to soend their loot and mistreat their household help while he babbles.
4
Making it harder to pay off college debt is a policy that will leave the U.S. further in the past, and further away from achieving and maintaining a competitive economic advantage compared with other nations. It is in keeping with Republican narrow-minded policies of non-investment, except in the military. It's also part of Trump's corruption; De Vos was corrupt in Michigan and is merely playing on a larger stage now. So this is both ideology imposed on us, to our detriment because there will simply be less education happening, and stealing from the Federal pot.
82
This self-proclaimed 'Christian', morally self rightous, has no soul. I wish there was a way to seize her and her husband's vast financial holdings, and use them to compensate the very people she's hurting with such policies.
370
@Max Brockmeier You mean like Jesus guided his followers to do!
2
Disgraceful. The abject meanness and greed of this administration is astounding.
519
These sleazy for profit “universities” should be run out of business and their former student’s loans completely forgiven. What a scam. No federally funded (or guaranteed) loans for should be available these diploma mill hustlers.
221
@Melvin: You have the right solution. I wish ...
A difficulty is that there are private, for-profit schools that are legitimate, normally small and in-person. But it would not be hard to distinguish them by setting up rigorous criteria involving student outcomes, including dropouts. It's politics that has kept the blood-sucking giants like "U of Phoenix" in business.
6
Ms. inherited wealth DeVos sure knows how to stick it to everyone else so she can keep her unearned status.
What a poor excuse for a human being.
474
No surprises here. It’s mean-spirited. It undoes an Obama policy. It attacks the middle classes and the poor. It protects fraudulent universities from financial risks. Just another day in Trump’s America.
619
@Dagwood
he got a worthless degree from a business school. Evidently he was subject to fraud because he didn't learn anything about economics & business just the bankruptcy part.
12
This was a deplorable practice by these institutions. But, nowhere
is there ANY mention of caveat emptor, common sense, personal
responsibility, financial literacy, etc., etc.
Gotta love the nanny state.
29
@Michael Sherman - do you really expect an individual to have the resources to thoroughly investigate institutions whose financial departments are dedicated to defrauding its customers and the Federal government? Especially if those individuals have to devote effort to the everyday business of keeping a job? The whole purpose of regulations is to make it harder for fraudulent institutions to hide their true nature from prospective customers and to make it more difficult for them to come into existence in the first place. Please leave your ivory tower and rejoin the real world.
4
@Michael Sherman
The people preyed upon by these institutions are frequently the most vulnerable, often from disadvantaged backgrounds and without the resources available to many others. There will always be dishonest businesses, but why in the wide world does our government allow these fraudulent institutions to victimize students and then stick them with tens of thousands in debt? These places need to be monitored and regulated, but clearly that is not what Betsy DeVos has in mind. Given what Donald Trump did with "Trump University," it is not surprising that his administration has no empathy for defrauded college students.
2
@Michael Sherman Is this really a "nanny state" situation? While I support mostly free markets, because nobody really wants totally free markets, and believe consumers need to beware and educate themselves before making buying decisions, it is difficult to know the truth sometimes when a seller uses partially baked data to augment reality. If a bank sold you on a loan based on a 3% interest rate, but added hidden fees, etc. resulted in an effective rate of 7.5% interest you might scream "deceptive advertising." I do not think schools should get a free pass if they claim 1/2 baked graduation rates and completely baked job placement data to reel in potential students. Ultimately buyers cannot be expected to make educated decisions if they are expected to rely on false data.
3
Ah Betsy,
You are so incompetent.
You should sell vitamins and call it a day before people get hurt.
The students who wanted debt relief were the ones who were pulled in by lies and deceit by for-profit colleges who never gave them an education, but cackled as they took their money.
They preyed on vulnerable students from, often, minority groups desperate to better themselves.
But Betsy, you just don't get it, do you?
You've always been wealthy.
Coddled.
Spoiled.
You were led to believe that you are more competent than you are because you donate huge amounts of money to politicians, like Trump, a horrid man, who then return the favor to you.
You are no more qualified to lead education here in the US than I would be qualified to tame lions.
We could choose just about any public school teacher, or principal, or superintendent in this country and they would know more than you about education.
What have you done so far? You've supported charter schools, whose track record is abysmal.
You are now trying to hurt students who were lied to, pressured to, take out loans for illegitimate schools.
You are protecting the monied people, as you are a monied person, and you care nothing for those who are struggling.
Those peasants.
Your job is promote and support education and the PEOPLE of this country trying to get an education.
Your job is not to cause more financial hurt, your job is not to bring DOWN education in this country.
Please resign and go sell vitamin C.
485
But...but...these cabinet secretaries have been carefully chosen for the skills they bring to their various departments. First goal: erase all sign that Obama was ever in office. Second goal: loosen up that pesky red tape that stands between the oligarchs and a virtual gusher of cash. Goal three: make sure only the most “qualified” reap the benefits of reorganization, repeals, and replacements. That goes for personnel, policies, and legislation. The gap between the “haves” and “have nots” is now being jaws-of-life-separated wider. Wonder what it was like under feudalism? That’s goal four.
5
@Katie
Nailed it. Bravo.
2
Love it Katie!
2
Funny country we live in. Trump (and many of his cronies) has declared bankruptcy multiple times to the tune of god knows how many dollars. Was he forced to provide evidence that he was misled to get out from under? No--that privilege is reserved for students so stressed by debt that have little chance to ever make it up the economic ladder. And note--now they will have to "prove" they were swindled. So all they need do is engage an expensive attorney--no problem for a struggling debt slave.
But let's go back to the beginning; back to 2005 when the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act
was passed (note the Orwellian "Consumer Protection" in the title). It is deemed "abusive" to borrow in order to obtain an education which might lead to earning power and stability in life and then be unable to repay. But all others may apply for bankruptcy as often as they like. What moral calculation is used to single out students whose choice is either borrow or forgo higher education while giving anyone else multiple free passes?
327
All colleges are businesses, but for-profit colleges throw shareholders into the mix, and remove the high standards that support the prestige of normal colleges. They cajole almost all attendees into taking out federal loans to cover their all aspects of their education, typically set at the highest amounts allowable by law.
Students either drop out of finish with a degree of questionable value, but their motivation is to turn a profit, not provide an education. If it smells like our for-profit medical insurance industry that makes increases profits by denying care, you nailed it.
Meanwhile, in the rest of the civilized world, citizens attend college for free, and they can pursue a career based on their desires rather than the expense of the education. Even Cuba, the poorest country in North America, provides free college to anyone who wants to go.
So we can thank Ms. De Vos for protecting the thing that her party values the most: unregulated greed. This is ironic coming from a woman who has never had to work a moment of her life because of the family "free money."
168
@robert b Put simply they are a business which exists solely because of government money in the form of student loans flowing in to them. The product they deliver is substandard at best and the students are left holding the bag. The students pay back the loans which enriched the for profit "schools" and the shareholders and CEOs get rich from it.
However, there has been enough on the news about them that people should avoid them like the plague. Put them out of business by not signing up.
4
@Robert b Cuba? Poorer then Haiti? Cubas claim to fame is education and healthcare. But that education leads to no economic opportunity except a swim across the Florida straits.
No country provides a free education to anyone who wants to go.
Its tests based. Its parental lobbying based. Its parental community involvement based. And, its language skill based. Make sure you send an apple for the teacher.
In some countries kids are as early as 4th grade for University or not.
Imagine a close friend or family member of yours is scammed on the internet or on the phone. They took out a loan of $200,000 to fund this scam. After this person realizes he/she had been taken in by phony promises, imagine the authorities saying 1) the scammers can keep operating, and there's nothing to be done; and 2) your loved one is still on the hook for the full $200,000, as that kind of loan must be paid back and can never be discharged in bankruptcy court (just like student loans). The scammers aren't responsible for the money, your loved one is. Yes, the scammers are bad people, and it's a terrible tragedy. But your loved one simply should have exercised better judgement. Caveat emptor, right?
Ms. DeVos's proposed rules are despicable and immoral, and protect outright fraud - the same kind of fraud perpetrated by "Trump University," against which students successfully sued.
We need a new word for "shame."
284
@jrinsc But should taxpayers be the ones to pay back your loved one? The situation you describe is terrible, but I don't see why the taxpayers should pay that $200,000. It's not the scammer who pays it, it's the tax payers.
1
@jrinsc No one in the Trump administration has any idea of what the word "shame" means.
3
@Itsy. Thats how bankruptcy works. Like lets say Itsy had a Visa card and went to outback every night for a year, and then couldn't pay the bills.
Same thing.
Others here have noted the similarities between the fraudulent for-profit colleges and "Trump University," but they haven't carried these through to outcomes. The settlement Trump agreed to returned about 40 cents on the dollar of what they had paid.
When a grifter gets to keep 60% of the grift and walk away scot free ... that's a business model, not a punishment.
The obvious question is what fraction of relief are any of these defrauded students getting?
207
I so enjoy the false dichotomy this is based on. Vicitms of fraud struggling to pay back tens of thousands of dollars that third parties stole from the federal government in their name -- those people are separate and distinct from "hard-working taxpayers?" Bold of you to play the handout card in this scenario, Betsy. These people went to college; they believed in the system; they worked hard in order to be a valuable asset to employers in their chosen field.
Instead, they're a bottom barrel applicants without any higher education, career skills, certifications, degrees, or vocational training, and they no longer qualify for federal financial aid that would help them obtain such a thing. These are the people who shouldn't benefit from tax dollars? The people paying taxes in a lower bracket than they should have to, because they're trapped there now, due entirely to the federal government's inexplicable lack of oversight on what kind of institutions can leech off their educational loan system?
Come on, Department of Education. You know darn well you can't garnish wages that don't exist! And I assume such pragmatic fiscal conservatives are familiar with the concept of payroll taxes -- again, it works just like wage garnishing. You don't get to use the basic, common civic duty of paying taxes as a dog whistle to tap into self-righteous this time. It's not applicable in this debate. So who exactly are you trying to cast as the unfairly put-upon heroes of this story?
107
Of all the members of Trump's Cabinet I believe DeVos is the most insidious. Dear Betsy may have the look of a well to do grandmother but her callousness belies her image.
I find it especially egregious when people take on debt for the purpose of furthering their education in the hope of improving their career only to be defrauded by schools or rendered otherwise no more employable.
I have more student loan debt than I ever wished to have at this point in my life. I have been generous with my time since I was in my 20s. Silly me I thought character, compassion and generosity mattered. The Trump regime's mere existence shows how many Americans are morally bankrupt. People will vote their own interests even if millions of their fellow Americans end up being hurt.
One of the primary 'religions' in the United States is greed.
120
This is revolting. I used to work as a loan counselor for higher education and I directed a lot of people to the Board of Education website to apply for such relief. It already is a difficult process now it will be nearly impossible. Most of these victims are economically challenged as they couldn't enter the more well known universities. The two referenced schools were able to be closed down because students joined forces, but now it's each man for himself. Congratulations, aren't we proud to make America Great?
50
Why would a supposedly fiscally conservative government party want to ensure the continued flow of cash,through federal student loans, to fraudulent,expensive and ultimately worthless degrees from for profit colleges? That's putting shady business interests above fiscal responsibility. I don't hold students blameless here. Not everyone need a college degree. And just because you can get the loan doesn't mean you should.
16
When you create a professional environment in which one is expected to have a Graduate level degree to be considered for entry level jobs, the scene is set for crooked, shady dealings and rampant usury.
It is true that students are not blameless, however, as an individual pursuing a masters program and mired deeply in student loans with high interest rates, there seems to be little option. Either I choose to cobble together part time jobs with no access to a salary, benefits, or paid leave, or I choose mega debt and pray that my hard work and hard earned degree will open doors for me.
This is just the latest cruel joke in a now years old horrific comedy. I can't help but feel embittered that many individuals who are especially unforgiving of individuals seeking education today likely come from the generation (not too long ago) when a high school diploma and hard work were enough. Newsflash: those times are gone, and we young people will remain financially hollowed out, potentially forever.
17