18 States Sue Betsy DeVos to Reinstate Rules Protecting Students from Predatory Private Colleges

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and the U.S. Department of Education were hit with multiple lawsuit filings on Thursday for their recent actions to make it harder for students to seek legal relief for student loan debt from predatory for-profit colleges. The lawsuit by the 18 states described how DeVos abruptly reversed the Department’s protections for students. The pro-borrower policy was supposed to take effect on July 1, but two weeks ago the Department issued a notice postponing parts of it indefinitely. The states said these schools prey on the most vulnerable student populations: young people who are the first in their families to attend school—often women from non-white communities—as well as veterans and the unemployed. The lawsuit went on to describe how these schools only spend a fraction of their revenues on teaching.