July 9, 2017

DeVos Should Stop Stalling, Enforce Obama Rules to Protect Students From Fraud

This week, the Department of Education is holding hearings (Monday in DC, Wednesday in Dallas) at which members of the public can comment on Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’s announcement that she will conduct a “Regulatory Reset” – a new round of rule-making proceedings to reconsider two college accountability rules issued by the Department in
Continue Reading >>>

August 1, 2016

Obama’s Last Chance to Protect Students & Taxpayers From Predatory Colleges

ObamaFtStewart

This is the comment (pdf) I submitted today to the Department of Education regarding new rules aimed at protecting students and taxpayers from deceptive practices and other abuses by unscrupulous colleges.   Secretary John B. King, Jr. ,U.S. Department of Education   Re: Docket ID ED-2015-OPE-0103 Dear Secretary King: I thank you and the Department
Continue Reading >>>

July 6, 2016

Ex-New York Times Reporter Now Lobbying to Block Student Debt Relief

edwardwyatt

For-profit colleges are once again fighting furiously, and expensively, to gut a common sense regulation from the Obama Department of Education. The Hill today is calling this latest lobbying battle a “frenzy.” The Obama rule spurring this frenzy would: 1. Implement a law already on the books by providing standards and procedures for the government to forgive the
Continue Reading >>>

June 24, 2016

For A Day, Broke Students Win

naciqihrng

In a world of mass shootings, Brexit, and a looming dramatic presidential election, the deliberations of the U.S. Department of Education’s National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI), in a nondescript meeting room at the DoubleTree Crystal City in Arlington, VA,  would hardly seem to matter. But, yesterday, it did matter. By the scheduled 8:30 am
Continue Reading >>>

June 22, 2016

Give the Obama Student Loan Servicing Plan a Chance

debt

Guest Post by Deanne Loonin (attorney and advocate for low-income student loan borrowers) Programs to help struggling student loan borrowers will only succeed if servicers effectively do their jobs and provide high quality information and assistance. Servicers are a borrower’s primary point of contact.  Ideally, they should provide borrowers with accurate and comprehensive information about
Continue Reading >>>

June 13, 2016

For-Profit College Lobbyist Gives the Game Away

Steve-Gunderson-President-CEO-APSCU

It is absolutely stunning that the for-profit colleges’ chief lobbyist, Steve Gunderson, told a reporter today that a new Obama Administration proposed rule — a rule that would finally give students and taxpayers some leverage to recover payments for abuses by predatory schools — “will crush career education.” What does that say about the performance
Continue Reading >>>

June 8, 2016

Why We Need A Strong Student Debt Relief Rule

debtcollective

The Obama Administration is on the verge of issuing a proposed rule that would create new procedures and standards for cancelling the federal student loan debt of people who were defrauded by their colleges. The rule would also create new standards for the Department of Education to require colleges to post escalating letters of credit based
Continue Reading >>>

June 5, 2016

For-Profit College Industry, In Freefall, Convenes in Florida

rosen-shingle-creek

Today, the troubled for-profit college industry’s troubled trade association, APSCU, begins its four-day annual convention, at the Rosen Shingle Creek resort in Orlando FL. Unlike past years, there is no big name keynote speaker, no George W. Bush, Jeb Bush, or Newt Gingrich, and no dance party with a semi-faux version of the Beach Boys or Kool
Continue Reading >>>