Democrats Call For Investigation Into Secretary Betsy DeVos Over Loan Forgiveness Formula – Forbes
Senator Gary Peters (D-MI) and Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) have called for an investigation into Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos for possible violations of the Privacy Act of 1974 and undermining legal protections of student borrowers.
Peters and Maloney wrote to the Department of Education’s Acting Inspector General, asking her to investigate allegations that DeVos illegally used information from the Social Security Administration to write a new loan forgiveness formula. The new formula was part of the “borrower defense” rule that allows the Secretary of Education to discharge the debt of student borrowers who were defrauded by their colleges.
In late 2019, DeVos released a formula that determined the amount of student debt relief defrauded students borrowers could receive. This “partial relief” formula considered predicted earnings of students based on the average earnings of students at that school compared to students who attended other schools. The forgiveness formula was then based on the difference in expected and current earnings.