The Lawsuits Challenging DeVos’ Anti-Student Higher Education Agenda

This post originally appeared on www.americanprogress.org

By Sara Garcia| October 2, 2018

Under the leadership of Secretary Betsy DeVos, the U.S. Department of Education has sought to unravel protections for college students. In an attempt to push back against the department’s dubious legal maneuvers, a number of state attorneys general, civil rights organizations, and advocacy groups have engaged the courts. The National Student Legal Defense Network (NSLDN), the Harvard Legal Services Center, the National Consumer Law Center, and others have sought to prevent the rollback of crucial regulations and bring more transparency to the department’s decision-making.

Earlier this month, a federal judge issued a blockbuster decision in one of these cases, ruling that the department had illegally delayed the Obama administration’s borrower defense regulation, which provides students who have been misled by their institutions the ability to seek relief from their federal student loans. While the judge has yet to decide if the department will need to begin implementing borrower defense, the decision is proof of the importance of challenging the extreme measures that Secretary DeVos and her department have taken to undo protections for students.

This column details some of the most troubling cases currently under review in the areas of consumer protection, accountability, student loan servicing, and civil rights.

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Sara Garcia is a policy analyst for Postsecondary Education at the Center for American Progress.