FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 16, 2018

CONTACT:

Alexis Goldstein, alexis@ourfinancialsecurity.org, 202-973-8005

Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund applauds the news that a court has rejected the for-profit college industry’s attempt to stop the 2016 Borrower Defense rule. Today, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia sided with students over Betsy Devos’s attempts to let abusive for profit schools rip them off with impunity.

A previous court ruling found  that Secretary DeVos’s attempt to delay the 2016 rule was illegal, arbitrary, and capricious, but did not order immediate implementation of the rule. Today’s ruling paves the way for the 2016 Borrower Defense rule to finally go into effect. Implementation of the 2016 Borrower Defense rule will prevent the for-profit industry from denying students their right to a day in court, or banning them from joining class action lawsuits. This will allow borrowers to finally pursue their right to hold their school accountable in court should it break the law. It would also ensure that borrowers whose schools closed get access to debt relief they’re owed.

Borrowers scammed by predatory schools have waited far too long already for the protections afforded by this rule; the Department must immediately move to implement it, and to swiftly grant loan relief to students harmed by schools that broke the law.

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