Public Citizen, Project on Predatory Student Lending Press Call on Next Steps for Rule to Protect Students’ Rights From Predatory Schools
Sept. 14, 2018
*** Listen to Press Call Recording ***
Public Citizen, Project on Predatory Student Lending To Hold 1 p.m. EDT Press Call on Next Steps for Rule to Protect Students’ Rights From Predatory Schools
Education Department Unlawfully Delayed Obama-Era Rule; Court Hearing Today Will Determine Next Steps
WHAT: Telephone press call to update reporters on a court hearing this morning to determine the next steps after a federal district court judge ruled late Wednesday that the U.S. Department of Education unlawfully delayed a regulation to protect students defrauded by predatory for-profit colleges and career training programs.
Speaking on the call will be lawyers from Public Citizen and the Project on Predatory Student Lending, who represent the two borrowers who brought and won their own case against the illegal delay.
The court’s decision came in two cases, filed in July and consolidated in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia seeking to effectuate the “borrower defense rule.” In Bauer v. DeVos, No. 17-1330, Public Citizen and the Project on Predatory Student Lending represent plaintiffs Meaghan Bauer and Stephano Del Rose, former students of the for-profit New England Institute of Art (NEIA) in Brookline, Mass., which engaged in unfair and deceptive practices that left them with a useless education, few job prospects and significant debt, and barred them from bringing their claims in court or as a group. In the states’ case, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, No. 17-1331, a coalition of 19 state attorneys general similarly sued the Secretary of Education to challenge her delay of the regulations.
The borrower defense rule was slated to go into effect on July 1, 2017. After an industry group challenged portions of the rule, the Trump administration delayed the rule three times. The judge found that all three delays were unlawful because the department failed to comply with the requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act and the Higher Education Act, and provided an insufficient, arbitrary and capricious rationale for its actions.
WHEN: 1 p.m. EDT Friday, Sept. 14
WHO: Adam Pulver, attorney, Public Citizen
Toby Merrill, director, Project on Predatory Student Lending
CALL-IN: U.S. toll-free 800-875-3456 (verbal passcode BRAD26106)
Canadian toll-free 800-648-0973 (verbal passcode BRAD26106)
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