Tag: Trump Education Department

Trump and DeVos want schools ‘fully’ open, but not many are listening

Washington Post logoPresident Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos spent much of this week pressuring and cajoling schools to reopen. DeVos, in particular, made clear she means five days a week.

But school systems across the country have already decided on models where students learn from home part of the time. That includes a charter school network that DeVos has repeatedly praised for its approach during the pandemic.

Like many other systems, Success Academy Charter Schools, a network in New York City, says it cannot safely reopen with all children in the building because there is not enough room to keep them apart. Continue reading.

Over Veterans’ Protests, Trump Vetoes Measure to Block Student Loan Rules

New York Times logoPresident Trump sided with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos over veterans’ groups, vetoing a measure that would have blocked new regulations that tighten access to student loan forgiveness.

WASHINGTON — President Trump vetoed a bipartisan resolution on Friday to overturn new regulations that significantly tighten access to federal student loan forgiveness, siding with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos over veterans’ organizations that say her rules will harm veterans bilked by unscrupulous for-profit colleges.

The veto will allow stringent rules for students seeking loan forgiveness to take effect on July 1. The rules toughen standards established under the Obama administration for student borrowers seeking to prove their colleges defrauded them and to have their federal loans erased. Even if some borrowers can show they were victims of unscrupulous universities, they could be denied relief unless they can prove their earnings have been adversely affected.

The resolution “sought to reimpose an Obama-era regulation that defined educational fraud so broadly that it threatened to paralyze the nation’s system of higher education,” Mr. Trump said in his veto statement. “The Department of Education’s rule strikes a better balance, protecting students’ rights to recover from schools that defraud them while foreclosing frivolous lawsuits.” It was the president’s eighth veto. Continue reading.

Trump backs DeVos plan to limit student debt relief

The president vetoed legislation that would have blocked a policy by DeVos limiting debt relief for defrauded student loan borrowers.

President Donald Trump on Friday sided with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and her plans to make it harder to forgive the debt of defrauded student loan borrowers.

Trump vetoed bipartisan legislation that would have blocked a policy by DeVos that limits debt relief for defrauded student loan borrowers.

Trump backed DeVos over the objections of veterans organizations, which had urged him to sign the measure to stop a regulation that they said makes it too difficult for their members to obtain help if they are cheated by their colleges. Continue reading.

DeVos Funnels Coronavirus Relief Funds to Favored Private and Religious Schools

New York Times logoEducation Secretary Betsy DeVos, using discretion written into the coronavirus stabilization law, is using millions of dollars to pursue long-sought policy goals that Congress has blocked.

WASHINGTON — Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is using the $2 trillion coronavirus stabilization law to throw a lifeline to education sectors she has long championed, directing millions of federal dollars intended primarily for public schools and colleges to private and religious schools.

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, signed in late March, included $30 billion for education institutions turned upside down by the pandemic shutdowns, about $14 billion for higher education, $13.5 billion to elementary and secondary schools, and the rest for state governments.

Ms. DeVos has used $180 million of those dollars to encourage states to create “microgrants” that parents of elementary and secondary school students can use to pay for educational services, including private school tuition. She has directed school districts to share millions of dollars designated for low-income students with wealthy private schools. Continue reading.

‘A New Low’: Betsy DeVos sued for garnishing wages of nearly 300,000 student loan borrowers during pandemic

AlterNet logoA home health aide who earns just under $13 per hour is the lead plaintiff in aclass-action lawsuit filed Thursday against Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, whose department has continued garnishing the wages of hundreds of thousands of student loan borrowers in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

The CARES Act, which was signed into law in late March, prohibits the Education Department from seizing the wages and tax refunds of student loan borrowers who have defaulted on their loans.

But Elizabeth Barber of Rochester, New York, says the Trump administration has nonetheless continued to take 12% of her paychecks since the legislation passed—garnishing $70 from her check as recently as last week—adding to the financial strain which forced her to default on $10,000 in federal loans in December. Barber’s hours have also been reduced by 10 to 15 hours per week since the coronavirus pandemic began. Continue reading.

How Betsy DeVos and the charter school movement are exploiting the pandemic to advance their agendas

AlterNet logoCOVID-19 has shuttered public schools across the nation, state governments are threatening to slash education budgets due to the economic collapse caused by the outbreak, and emergency aid provided by the federal government is far short of what is needed, according to a broad coalition of education groups, but the charter school industry may benefit from its unique status to seek public funding from multiple sources and expand these schools into many more communities traumatized by the pandemic and financial fallout.

As school districts reported huge problems with converting classroom learning into online instruction delivered to students’ homes, often due to lack of funding for internet-capable devices and Wi-Fi hotspots, charter school proponents spread the news of how their industry could take advantage of emergency aid.

Charter operators rolled out new marketing campaigns to lure families to enroll in their schools. And in national and local news outlets, advocates for charters, vouchers, and other forms of “school choice” helped forge a new media narrative about how the shuttering of the nation’s schools was an opportunity for parents and their children to leave public schools. Continue reading.

Betsy DeVos’s problem with numbers

Washington Post logoEducation Secretary Betsy DeVos has a problem with numbers. As in, she sometimes cites numbers that just aren’t accurate.

DeVos, of course, is hardly the only government official to cite inaccurate numbers to make a point, but that’s no reason not to point it out when she does — and she did during two appearances in the last week before congressional committees when defending the Trump administration’s proposed 2021 budget.

Let’s look at a few examples from her testimony. Continue reading.

Betsy DeVos cornered by congressman for lacking basic information about the US education system: ‘You don’t know the answer?’

AlterNet logoSecretary of Education Betsy DeVos testified before a House Appropriations subcommittee Thursday and was repeatedly unable to answer basic questions, got snippy with Democratic lawmakers, and falsely claimed research cited by top Democrats was wrong and had been “debunked.”

(The numbers behind that research came from DeVos herself, according to this piece in the Washington Post.)

In an exchange with Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI), DeVos got heated, refuted his claims, and yet was unable to give a correct answer. Continue reading.

Betsy Devos’ Education Department under fire after humiliating oversight failure

AlterNet logoThe Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges & Schools (ACICS) accredited a college which appears to have no faculty or students after Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos reversed an Obama era decision to shutter the federal agency after it accredited colleges that defrauded students, according to a new investigation.

The ACICS, which accredited now-shuttered for-profit schools, including ITT Tech, Corinthian Colleges, and Brightwood College, was shut down by former President Obama’s administration in 2016. The department argued at the time that the agency, which oversaw 725 schools and more than $3 billion in federal financial aid, “exhibited a profound lack of compliance” with the “most basic” responsibilities of an accreditor.

A judge allowed DeVos, who has often sided with for-profit institutions, to reinstate the ACICS in 2018, The Washington Post reported. A former Obama administration official told the outlet that Devos “ignored her career staff’s 57 findings of ACICS’s noncompliance.” The education secretary similarly came under fire for ignoring career staff when she gutted a debt relief program for students defrauded by the for-profit colleges accredited by ACICS. Continue reading.

Betsy DeVos’ approval rating is 28 percent as voters back investigations into student debt scandal: poll

AlterNet logoA majority of voters support congressional investigations into Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’ handling of student debt programs, according to the results of a new poll, which exposes how deeply unpopular the Trump Cabinet member is across the country.

DeVos has an approval rating of just 28%, according to a survey conducted by Global Strategy Group on behalf of government watchdog Allied Progress, who provided the results to Salon. DeVos received the lowest approval rating of any Trump administration official tested. The next most unpopular official was acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney at 33%.

The survey, which sampled 1,008 registered voters, also found overwhelming support for congressional investigations into whether DeVos abused taxpayer funds or used her position to benefit herself or her family. Continue reading.