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Good News for For-Profit College Students: Trump Administration Will Miss Deadline to Repeal Borrower Protections

Oct. 3, 2018

Good News for For-Profit College Students: Trump Administration Will Miss Deadline to Repeal Borrower Protections

Statements of Public Citizen Experts

Note: The U.S. Department of Education will miss a November deadline to repeal the Obama-era Borrower Defense Rule for the 2019 school year. The rule was designed to protect students from predatory for-profit colleges by ensuring that students can hold unethical schools accountable in court, among other things. Public Citizen recently prevailed in litigation over the department’s unlawful attempts to delay the implementation of those provisions; a federal judge held that those attempts were “arbitrary and capricious.” Although an industry group is asking a court to block the Borrower Defense Rule from taking effect, the rule is currently set to do so on Oct. 12.

“Tuesday’s development means that a Trump administration effort to replace the Obama-era borrower defense rule cannot possibly take effect until July 2020. That’s good news for the public, because Secretary Betsy DeVos’ proposed rule would gut protections for borrowers and leave taxpayers footing the bill for predatory schools’ risky conduct. It’s high time for the secretary to stop making excuses and put the Obama-era rule in place, as it should have been for more than a year now. Students deserve the benefit of a rule intended to protect them from higher ed hucksters. We are committed to helping students get that benefit and will continue to fight any industry efforts that stand in their way.”

– Julie Murray, attorney, Public Citizen

“After unlawfully delaying the 2016 rule three times, the Education Department appears to be realizing that you can’t take shortcuts simply to rush through deregulation. We are optimistic that the 2016 rule will finally go into effect, providing defrauded student borrowers the relief they are entitled to and protecting future students and the federal government from the consequences of predatory schools’ practices.”

– Adam Pulver, attorney, Public Citizen

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