Statement on Rollback of Protections for Defrauded Student Borrowers

Student Defense President Aaron Ament issued the following statement responding to the Department of Education’s rollback of the 2016 Borrower Defense regulation:

“Secretary DeVos continues to be more focused on collecting money from defrauded students than going after the predatory schools and corporate owners who cheated them out of their education.  This new rule rigs the system against students by cutting off nearly every avenue for individual borrowers to assert their rights when they are harmed. 

“The Department is placing an enormous hurdle in front of students by requiring unrealistic standards for proving misrepresentation, and will deny students their day in court by allowing schools to revert to old practices of forcing arbitration and banning class of students from suing together.”

Regarding the end of automatic loan discharges for students whose schools close:

“Rolling back the automatic closed school discharge provision does absolutely nothing except penalize students who don’t know they are entitled to relief. We know from experience that most eligible students have no idea they can have their debts forgiven when their college or university closes its doors.”