The California group representing for-profit colleges is abandoning major parts of its legal challenge to the Obama-era “borrower defense” package of regulations. The California Association of Private Postsecondary Schools said in court filings during the last week of 2018 that it’s no longer contesting some parts of the 2016 rule—including provisions that ease loan forgiveness for defrauded students and impose sanctions on troubled colleges.
— CAPPS lost its bid last fall to get a judge to immediately halt the entire package of Obama-era regulations. The group is now instead centering its legal challenge on the rule’s ban on colleges using mandatory arbitration agreements. It argues that the Education Department doesn’t have the authority to ban the practice, which is most common at for-profit schools.
— The Trump administration has made clear it doesn’t like the ban and has similarly questioned its legality. But the Education Department may soon be forced to enforce the ban after a federal judge’s ruling in October that paved the way for it to take effect. The department has said it’s planning to issue guidance to colleges about enforcement of the arbitration ban.