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U.S. NEWS Friday 12 July 2019

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Teachers union sues DeVos over embattled loan relief program

By COLLIN BINKLEY
AP Education Writer
One of the nation’s largest
teachers’ unions sued the
U.S. Education Department
on Thursday over a federal
program that promises to
forgive student loans for
public workers but has
been beset by problems.
The American Federation
of Teachers filed a federal
lawsuit in Washington al-
leging that the department
has mismanaged the Pub-
lic Service Loan Forgive-
ness program, violating the
Constitution by denying
applicants their due pro-
cess rights.
The program was created
in 2007 and promises to
forgive student loans for
graduates who made 120
monthly payments while
working as teachers, nurs-
es, police or other public
workers.
But just 1% of more than
86,000 applications had
been approved for loan
forgiveness as of March 31,
according to Education
Department data, while In this Sept. 17, 2018, file photo, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos speaks during a student town hall at the National Constitution
thousands were told they Center in Philadelphia.
had not made enough Associated Press
loan payments or were fully administering the com- cious grounds, without any that the department had but she blames Congress
missing paperwork. plex program Congress meaningful process to re- failed to make the rule for creating a program with
The union says the Educa- passed.” view erroneous decisions.” clear to borrowers or to the complex rules.
tion Department routinely Joining the lawsuit are sev- The program has been in loan servicer that process- She has also said she
makes errors while process- eral school teachers and turmoil over the last year es applications. doesn’t think certain types
ing applications and has no other public workers who amid complaints that its Congress has allotted tem- of jobs should be incentiv-
appeals process for those say they were denied loan complex eligibility rules porary funding to erase ized over others.
who are wronged. discharges because the were never made clear. loans for borrowers who A group of Senate Demo-
The suit targets the depart- department miscounted The deal applies only to were rejected only be- crats proposed a bill in April
ment and Secretary Betsy their loan payments or be- certain federal loans, for cause they had the wrong that would simplify the rules
DeVos. cause their loan servicers example, and only for bor- type of loan or payment and expand the offer to
“Public Service Loan For- gave them inaccurate in- rowers in certain repay- plan, but the union says the more borrowers.
giveness is a right, but Betsy formation. ment plans. department has failed to Without a fix, advocates
DeVos has turned it into a The suit demands loan dis- Scores of borrowers have implement even that stop- worry that the problem will
crapshoot,” said Randi We- charges for those public complained that they gap program. only worsen. While fewer
ingarten, the president of workers and says the de- made 10 years of loan pay- Education Department than 100,000 have ap-
the union. She added that partment should identify ments in hopes of getting data show that more than plied for forgiveness since
instead of helping borrow- other errors it has made loan forgiveness, only to 12,000 applications had the application window
ers, DeVos “has hurt and and create a new appeals find out that they aren’t eli- been submitted for the opened in late 2017, Edu-
pauperized them.” process to fight rejections. gible because they didn’t temporary funding as of cation Department data
Department spokeswoman It says the department has have the right type of loan March, but just 3.6% had show that more than 1 mil-
Liz Hill says the agency does “failed to make good on or payment plan. been approved. lion have taken the initial
not comment on pending Congress’s promise, de- A September 2018 report Democrats in Congress steps to have their loan
litigation but added that nying PSLF to applicants from the Government Ac- have blamed DeVos for payments counted for the
the department is “faith- on arbitrary and capri- countability Office found failing to fix the program, program.q