The attorneys general of 22 states and the District of Columbia have filed suit against Education Secretary Betsy DeVos over her new “borrower defense” rule. The rule provides for student loan forgiveness for defrauded students.
Led by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, the lawsuit asks the courts to knock down the 2019 Trump administration rule and reinstate the former 2016 regulation.
The borrower defense rule allows the Secretary of Education to discharge student debt when students were defrauded by their colleges. In 2016, the Obama administration wrote a new regulation outlining how student borrowers could get loan forgiveness after claims of fraud increased because of the now-defunct Corinthian Colleges and ITT Tech.
When DeVos came into office in 2017, she delayed the Obama administration’s 2016 rule. DeVos then rewrote the regulation and created an incredibly high standard for a burden of proof for student borrowers. Under the Obama rule, a student just needed to show a substantial misrepresentation by the school to receive relief.