Page 5 - ARUBA TODAY

A5
U.S. NEWS Monday 30 october 2017
AP sources: DeVos

may only partly forgive

some student loans

By MARIA DANILOVA DeVos’ review prompted
Associated Press an outcry from student
WASHINGTON (AP) — The loan advocates, who said
Education Department is the idea of giving defraud-
considering only partially ed students only partial
forgiving federal loans for loan relief was unjustified
students defrauded by for- and unfair because many
profit colleges, according of their classmates had
to department officials, already gotten full loan In this Oct. 13, 2017 file photo, U.S. Education Secretary Betsy
abandoning the Obama cancellation. Critics say DeVos speaks during a dinner hosted by the Washington Policy
administration’s policy of the Trump administration, Center in Bellevue, Wash.
erasing that debt. which has ties to the for- Associated Press
Under President Barack profit sector, is looking out That change was set to DeVos has come under
Obama, tens of thousands for industry interests. take effect in July, but criticism for delaying con-
of students deceived by Earlier this year, Trump paid DeVos has frozen it and sideration of over 65,000
now-defunct for-profit $25 million to settle charges is working on a new ver- applications for loan for-
schools had over $550 mil- his Trump University misled sion. She argued that the giveness under the bor-
lion in such loans canceled. students. Obama regulation was too rower defense rule. The
But President Donald “Anything other than full broad and could cancel agency hasn’t approved
Trump’s education secre- cancellation is not a val- the loans of some students a single claim since DeVos
tary, Betsy DeVos, is work- id outcome,” said Eileen without a sound basis. took office in February.q
ing on a plan that could Connor, a litigator at Har-
grant such students just vard University’s Project on
partial relief, according to Predatory Student Lend-
department officials. The ing, which has represented
department may look at hundreds of defrauded
the average earnings of students of the now-shut-
students in similar programs tered Corinthian Colleges.
and schools to determine “The nature of the wrong
how much debt to wipe that was done to them, the
away. harm is even bigger than
The officials were not au- the loans that they have.”
thorized to publicly com- “Even more importantly, it
ment on the issue and is completely unfair that a
spoke on condition of ano- happenstance of timing
nymity. is going to mean that one
If DeVos goes ahead, the student who’s been de-
change could leave many frauded is going to have
students scrambling after full cancellation and the
expecting full loan forgive- next is not,” Connor said.
ness, based on the previ- A federal regulation known
ous administration’s track as borrower defense al-
record. It was not immedi- lows students at for-profit
ately clear how many stu- colleges and other voca-
dents might be affected. tional programs to have
A department spokeswom- their loans forgiven if it is
an did not immediately determined that the stu-
respond to a request for dents were defrauded by
comment Saturday. the schools. That rule dates
But the Trump team has to the early 1990s. But it was
given hints of a new ap- little used until the demise
proach. of Corinthian and ITT for-
In August, the department profit chains in recent years
extended its contract caused tens of thousands
with a staffing agency to of students to request that
speed up the processing the government cancel
of a backlog of loan for- their loans.
giveness claims. In the pro- In the last few months of
curement notice, the de- the Obama administration,
partment said that “policy the Education Department
changes may necessitate updated the rule to add
certain claims already pro- protections for students,
cessed be revisited to as- shift more financial respon-
sess other attributes.” The sibility onto the schools and
department would not fur- prevent schools from hav-
ther clarify the meaning of ing students sign away their
that notice. right to sue a school.