U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-CT, objected this week to a newly proposed “borrower defense” rule announced by Department of Education officials, claiming it would hurt thousands of students defrauded by for-profit colleges.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos published a proposed rule this week that would rewrite an Obama-era regulation published in 2016 that sought to help students who say they were defrauded by colleges to erase their debts.
Under the new version, students would be required to prove schools knowingly deceived them if they want their federal loans canceled. And it scuttled an Obama administration provision that allowed similar claims to be processed as a group. Instead, students will have to prove their claims individually, according to the Washington Post.
Blumenthal said the proposal would slash $12.7 billion in debt relief for students who were defrauded by predatory for-profit college chains like Corinthian Colleges and ITT Tech.
“Yet again, Secretary DeVos has revealed herself to be hellbent on neutering policies put in place to help students who have been taken advantage of by her for-profit college cronies.”
