Target: Miguel Cardona, U.S. Secretary of Education
Goal: Support renewed protections for student loan borrowers vulnerable to fraud and exploitation.
Predatory loan practices were a major source of contention during the controversial reign of former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. The secretary seemingly did everything in her power to protect lender organizations over the students they often exploited and swindled. This petition called attention to a controversial repeal of safeguards for student borrowers. The new Department of Education recently ordered a comprehensive review of many of these suspect measures. After previously targeting regulations relating to sexual harassment and violence on school campuses, the department is now taking square aim at equally prevalent financial victimization of indebted students.
The lenders who own over one trillion dollars in student debt will now once again be subject to state regulations: a barrier they managed to vanquish during Secretary DeVos’ tenure. An uptick in payment processing, communication-related, and other errors adversely affecting students has already led many states to adopt borrowers’ bill of rights. Now, they will have the federal backing and partnerships to implement these oversights and safety rails in full. This new initiative will also strengthen the ability of defrauded borrowers to pursue their cases and receive full restitution: a right they were also recently restored. This renewed defense of the defrauded has already led to the cancellation of one billion dollars of debt for roughly 72,000 former students.
Sign the petition below to thank the new secretary for his reemphasis on the rights and protections of all students.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Secretary Cardona,
Thank you for rolling back the most detrimental policies of your predecessor, including the shielding of lenders from even the most basic levels of scrutiny and oversight. Enabling states to participate in the regulation process will strengthen local partnerships and put the focus of protections back squarely where they belong: on the students. No American should ever take away fraud and deception as the main lessons of their education.
Your needed reforms will help reset the U.S. education system on the right course.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: Pixabay
418 Signatures