Betsy DeVos is on the move again against BDAR, and this time, if she wins, the program will be effectively gutted.
Her latest plans to update the Borrower's Defense Against Repayment Program is one of the worst I've ever witnessed in ten years of following the student loan industry.
Here are the details for Secretary DeVos's latest proposal to amend BDAR rules:
1. She wants to make it a requirement that the school, lender or servicing company you accuse of fraud or illegal activity must have committed it with "known falsity, intent to deceive, or reckless disregard for the truth". This will make it much easier for these schools to get away with fraud!
2. She wants to make it impossible for anyone to make group claims (similar to class action lawsuits) against the schools, lenders and servicing companies who have scammed millions of ordinary Americans out of billions of dollars in student loans, making it harder to organize against these corrupt institutions.
3. She wants to change the "institutional financial responsibility standards" applied to these schools, lenders and servicing companies to make it even more difficult to get any money back from them, even when they're found to be guilty of committing fraud.
4. She wants to make it impossible to apply for a Borrower's Defense Discharge unless you've already defaulted on your loans, meaning that to even be considered for a discharge, you would need to voluntarily enter into default, destroying your credit and risking your financial future, all just for the chance of receiving a BDAR approval.
To be clear: NONE of these changes will help the ordinary American borrower and ALL of them are being put in place to protect Betsy DeVos's friends at the for-profit schools, hedge funds and wall street-backed banks who have preyed on unsuspecting Americans for decades via the student loan debt bubble.
This proposal must be stopped! Please, contact your elected representative, your Senators, and anyone else who will listen to let them know that you are 100% against these updates proposed by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
If we can't stop these changes from going into effect, the BDAR program will be effectively gutted and our best access to student loan forgiveness will be cut off forever.
Please share this petition with your friends, colleagues and family members, and request that they support us by spreading the message as far and wide as possible via Social Media.
The more people who see and sign this petition, the better the odds we have in stopping Betsy DeVos from killing the Borrower's Defense to Repayment Program.
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