Betsy DeVos is really trying make her mark not just on American education but on the economy. DeVos, whose confirmation as education secretary required the vice president to break a tie on a cabinet nominee for the first time in history, is repealing Obama administration policies aimed at reducing student loan defaults:
A recent epidemic of student loan defaults and what authorities describe as systematic mistreatment of borrowers prompted the Obama administration, in its waning days, to force the [Federal Student Aid] office to emphasize how debtors are treated, rather than maximize the amount of cash they can stump up to meet their obligations.
Obama's team also sought to reduce the possibility that new contracts would be given to companies that mislead or otherwise harm debtors. The current round of contracts will terminate in 2019, and among three finalists for a new contract is Navient Corp. In January, state attorneys general in Illinois and Washington, along with the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, sued Navient over allegations the company abused borrowers by taking shortcuts to boost its own bottom line. Navient has denied the allegations.
The withdrawal of the Obama administration's guidelines could make Navient a more likely contender for that contract, government officials said.
Americans for Financial Reform highlights the language DeVos is revoking here:
The June 30 2016 memo rescinded today instructed Federal Student Aid (FSA) that they had to consider past performance awarding student loan servicing contracts, including whether servicers had “misled, ignored, or provided wrong information” to borrowers or if there was “improper or abusive customer service.”
The government would have to pay a little more to loan servicing companies to get them to help borrowers avoid default. Apparently DeVos would rather save a little money by ignoring whether companies had provided wrong information or been abusive.
from Daily Kos http://ift.tt/2oALDpJ
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