By Kara Bell December 18, 2019
Appearing before Congressional Committees Thursday, December 12, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos laid out her plan to clean up the student debt mess left by the Obama Administration. Leftwing representatives ignored the red-tape blocking DeVos from protecting all borrowers and taxpayers, ignored the irresponsible decisions by the Obama Administration that created the problem, and instead, attacked DeVos personally in a vicious and nonsensical manner.
Rep. Frederica Wilson of Florida exhibited her limited mastery of the issues calling Secretary DeVos the “most unpopular person in our government.”
Angela Morabito, Secretary DeVos’ Press Secretary, accurately described this disgraceful left-wing performance, “Make no mistake: this was not an oversight hearing. It was a cheap political show trial designed to personally attack and denigrate the Secretary of Education. It was unprofessional, it was outside of the rules of the House, and it set a terrible example for America’s young students who watched those shameless attacks. Our nation’s elected leaders should do better. It’s no wonder the American people have so little faith in the House of Representatives.”
During the Obama Administration, procedures for approving and denying borrower defense claims, a provision allowing a student to cancel their federal student loans if they were misled or deceived by their college, were nonexistent. Students were encouraged to file despite the government’s very limited ability to track and resolve them. Over 64,000 unresolved claims were dropped onto Secretary DeVos’ lap when Obama’s Administration slammed the door on their way out.
Because of this, an immense backlog of borrower defense claims is sitting at the Education Department’s Federal Student Aid Division. Students who believed they were deceived by a fraudulent university and took out student loans are not receiving the debt relief they might otherwise receive.
Secretary DeVos announced she will enforce a borrower defense rule that is “consistent with Congress’ intent, that protects all borrowers, and that treats taxpayers and schools fairly,” instead of indiscriminately pouring millions of taxpayer dollars to pay off student loan debt.
Secretary DeVos said, “Simply discharging all of these loans, as some on this committee suggest be done, is not fair to taxpayers nor to those who have paid or are paying their loans.”
Under her new proposal, cases will be processed efficiently, carefully, transparently, and fairly, and evaluated by evidence presented by both the borrower and the school to determine financial harm to the student. This way, cases are properly filed for resolution, and all parties are involved in the case. The chance of reckless student debt relief and financial harm to the institution would be drastically decreased, and taxpayers would no longer be forced to have their hard-earned money shoveled into these cases.
“I want to be very clear,” said Secretary DeVos, “Students are my number one priority. They are why I come to work every day. So, if students have been deceived by institutions and suffered financial harm as a result, they should be made whole. But if claims are false, or students did not suffer financial harm, then hardworking taxpayers (including those who scraped and saved to faithfully pay their own student loans) should not have to pay somebody else’s student loans too.”
But left-wing members of Congress are too stubborn to listen. Resorting to name-calling, false accusations, and snide remarks, these leftists mocked Secretary DeVos’ honest approach to fixing this one of the many failings of our government education system.