This week the Department of Education announced that it will discharge all remaining federal student loans for borrowers who attended any campus owned or operated by Corinthian Colleges Inc. The relief will total $5.8 billion and cancel debt for 560,000 borrowers, without any additional action needed.
AFR and 30 other organizations sent a sign-on letter to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in support of their proposed student loan servicing data collection initiative. Compiling such metrics and borrower outcomes would benefit market participants, federal and state agencies, policymakers, and borrowers. Obtaining a clearer view of the student loan market overall will help inform all market participants on how best to serve student loan borrowers.
Secretary’s DeVos’s actions to rescind three past Department of Education memos moves us away from true accountability, and creates dangers for the very student loan borrowers the Department is responsible for protecting.
We welcome the news that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau took action to protect student loan borrowers today by suing Navient for steering struggling borrowers toward paying more than they had to on their loans. The Bureau is joined by state attorneys general from Illinois and Washington, who today both filed their own lawsuits. This action makes clear why we need a strong, independent CFPB under the leadership of Director Cordray, whose work is putting billions of dollars back in the pockets of the people who earned them, rather than the coffers of companies who stole from them.
AFR and 4 other organizations call on the Department of Education to create a system that promotes quality and consistent student loan servicing by ensuring accountability, properly aligning servicer incentives, and creating appropriate standards.