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Betsy DeVos Helps a Lobbyist; Raises Fees on Students with Federal Loans
Betsy DeVos has been spoken of so much on Smart Dissent and across the news media that typing her name again and again has become sickening. However, we must Be Smart and Stay Informed in order to Actively Dissent. Please refresh yourself on the destructive actions of DeVos here and here.
What's she up to while the country is distracted by scandal after scandal of a President and government out of control?
Betsy DeVos issues a memo which hands a victory to United Student Aid Funds, Inc., a group directly tied to a lobbyist she hired to the Department of Education. That lobbyist has since quit due to pressure from people like yourselves. The rule change raises fees on struggling borrowers and increases profits for loan companies.
Americans who default on some of their federal student loans are likely to pay more after Education Secretary Betsy DeVos reversed an Obama administration directive limiting some fees. DeVos’s decision... allows companies known as guaranty agencies to charge distressed student debtors fees equivalent to 16 percent of their total balance, even when borrowers agree within 60 days to make good on their bad debt.
The reversal is almost certain to hand United Student Aid Funds Inc., the nation’s largest guaranty agency, a victory in its two-year legal battle against her department. The fees could translate into an additional $15 million in annual revenue for the company, filings in a related lawsuit suggest. Until Jan. 1, United Student Aid Funds was led by Bill Hansen, who served as Deputy Secretary of Education under President George W. Bush. His son, Taylor Hansen, a former for-profit college lobbyist, was one of the few DeVos advisers with professional experience in higher education.
Nice to see DeVos continuing to not represent the people of this nation and instead do the bidding of her corporate friends. Sickening.