College Debt and Loan Performance for Colleges need Reform, but DeVos to protect predatory Private Colleges

One Wisconsin Now has been a great advocate for highlighting the problem of student loan debt. Strangely, that's not where our backward Trump officials are taking us, and Trump tankers don't seem to give a damn either. Don't they must have college kids too?

"Education Secretary" Betsy DeVos pushes "Buyer Beware" Student Loan Policy: Like everything else under Trump Republicans, including healthcare, a return to a "buyer beware" economy just makes consumer spending a lot more dangerous and a big safety gamble. Hold onto your seats, this is going to be a wild ride into abject poverty. And private colleges love the idea, no surprise. Notice "relevant and reliable data" below. It's as reliable as "new and improved" on cereal boxes:

Students who are defrauded by their schools would have a harder time getting their federal loans erased under new rules proposed by the Trump administration … students would be eligible for loan relief if they can prove their schools knowingly misled them to take out loans or enroll at the school. 

That would be a higher bar than rules finalized under Obama (for a simple) breach of contract (for promising employment).

DeVos' argued “Postsecondary students are adults who can be reasonably expected to make informed decisions if they have access to relevant and reliable data about program outcomes.” Schools deserve to defend themselves.
 (It would) force students into arbitration agreements barring them from suing the school, (which was) banned under Obama's rules (where) students were granted full relief for their loans.

That Obama, helping keep postsecondary students from getting ripped off by education con artists like Trump and his "universities."

Here's yet another report showing just how bad the problem is right now, and could get under DeVos:

NY Times: The typical student borrower will take out $6,600 in a single year, averaging $22,000 in debt by graduation, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Consider the official statistics:

1. The law requires that all colleges participating in the student loan program keep their share of borrowers who default below 30 percent for three consecutive years ... Among the group, just 93 of their colleges had high default rates after three years ... Two years later, after the Department of Education stopped tracking results, 636 schools had high default rates.

2. For-profit institutions have particularly awful results. Five years into repayment, 44 percent of borrowers at these schools faced some type of loan distress, 

3. Loan performance should also be tracked for at least five years instead of three.

4. Too many borrowers and defaulters are low-income students, the very people who would receive only grant aid under a rational system for college financing. 

So we know we have a dramatic problem, yet Republicans continue to make fun of Democratic proposals to somehow provide a free college education to students. Next time they do that, ask them why they've never been outraged by Republican stronghold Indiana, blue NY., and the heavily subsidized Wyoming guarantee for state residents. Are they the biggest freeloaders ever, or just smart?

But tax cuts and freeloading, not sound budgeting, have delayed an important return to economic sanity that can only help future generations, not stick them with the bill:

Collectively, these borrowers owed over $23 billion, including more than $9 billion in default. Nationally, those are crisis-level results, and they reveal how colleges are benefiting from billions in financial aid while students are left with debt they cannot repay.

One more thing; wanna make the economy roar? Let students graduate without debt. Is that worth the investment?  

Private College ITT closes 130 campuses, stranding 35,000 students because it mislead students about "quality" programs, and pushing students into risky loans. Damn government regulation.

With the push for educational savings accounts to pay for private K-12 schools, you'd think people would be more wary about this whole scheme after seeing overnight closings and mismanagement every week in the headlines.

Well take a good look at a similar private system in higher education if you want to see how this privatization model will play out. It's an idea owned lock, stock and barrel by the Republican Party (ALEC). The party of "ideas" has a private bridge to sell you...and the taxpayers will be on the hook:

AP: The for-profit college chain ITT Technical Institute is shutting down all 130 of its U.S. campuses, (stranding) 35,000 students, saying Tuesday it can't survive recent sanctions by the U.S. Department of Education.

You'd think they would have been considerate enough not to waited until school started?

ITT Educational Services announced that campuses won't open for the fall term that was scheduled to begin Sept. 12, leaving students scrambling for last-minute options since many U.S. colleges already have started fall classes. ITT also cut more than 8,000 jobs immediately.

Ouch, damn big government bureaucracy's red tape and burdensome regulations...or not:

The chain was banned Aug. 25 from enrolling new students who used federal financial aid, because the company had become a risk to students and taxpayers. The department also ordered ITT to pay $152 million within 30 days to help cover student refunds and other liabilities if the chain closed.

Why not leave these private schools alone for gods sake, you know, the free market?

Days before those sanctions were announced, ITT's accreditor reported the chain had failed to meet several basic standards … It had also been investigated by state and federal authorities who accused ITT of pushing students into risky loans and of misleading students about the quality of programs.

Acting surprised after all the investigations and warnings, the CEO whined of course about the very regulation that caught him:

ITT Educational Services CEO Kevin Modany told reporters ITT was the victim of a "regulatory assault" and never had the chance to defend itself. Modany added ITT had offered to "wind down" its operations gradually … Department Undersecretary Ted Mitchell however said ITT never made a formal proposal.

Republicans love the old saying, buyer beware, because someone makes a lot money, and someone like everyday Americans, will lose a lot of money. Misleading school advertising and no accountability fostered all this. That's capitalism, and that's coming your way with private K-12: 

Under President Barack Obama, the Education Department has led a crackdown on for-profit colleges that have misled students or failed to deliver the results they promise. The now-defunct Corinthian College chain agreed to sell or close more than 90 U.S. colleges in 2014 amid a fraud investigation over advertising practices. The department is also deciding whether to cut ties with the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools, the group that accredited ITT and Corinthian.

The private school horror is affecting ITT students and instructors right here in Madison. WISC: