June, 2020
Washington – As if there weren't enough bad news already, student loan borrowers have just been dealt two more blows by President Trump and by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.
One is a slap at veterans especially; the other is an illegal collection action against borrowers generally.
Despite pleas from over thirty veterans' organizations, the President vetoed H.J. Res 76, which Congress passed on a bi-partisan basis to give loan relief to students defrauded by their institutions. Veterans are disproportionately affected because disreputable schools target them for their GI Bill benefits. A legal challenge is still pending, brought by the Project on Predatory Student Lending, which we can only hope is successful.
The advocacy group Veterans Education Success (VES) has done remarkable work to achieve bi-partisan support on veterans issues of all sorts. Approval of this resolution should have been an easy call for the President, to side with honorable veterans rather than corrupt schools. There is still a chance for Congress to redeem itself by overriding the veto.
The other problem, dealing with illegal student-loan collections, is being addressed in court in a suit brought by Student Defense and Democracy Forward against Education Secretary DeVos and Treasury Secretary Mnunchin. In violation of the CARES Act, the Treasury Department has seized more than $18 million in tax refunds from more than 11,000 student borrowers. And that was just in April.
Why do the President and the Secretary of Education care so little about the lives of struggling veterans and other student-loan borrowers who so clearly have been victimized in federal programs that were supposed to be helping them, not ruin their lives?
I think the answer is explained in Dan E. Moldea's new book, Money, Politics, and Corruption in U.S. Higher Education. I was interviewed in the book and gave examples of perjury, obstruction, violations of recusals, insider conspiracies to undermine audit integrity, conflicts of interest, and other abuses that simply amount to racketeering and corruption. Others gave similar accounts.
The latest predations by the President and the Secretary are hardly a surprise. Much credit is due the organizations named above that are trying to fight, against all odds, for integrity in federal programs and for the rule of law.
