There were plenty of hints in the past few weeks, but now it seems clear as day: The Trump Administration plans, with the leadership of designated Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, to trash the work of the Obama Administration to protect students from the abuses for predatory for-profit colleges.
Billionaire DeVos, whose nomination is scheduled to be voted on by the Senate HELP committee this morning, is under fire for her lack of enthusiasm for public education, her weak commitment to civil rights, and her shaky performance at her confirmation hearing, where she demonstrated only limited knowledge of policy issues.
Amid a pile of disturbing answers (and possibly plagiarized passages) from DeVos to written questions by Democrats on the HELP committee, DeVos responded this way to a question from Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) about whether she would enforce the Department’s 2015 gainful employment rule, which cuts off federal student aid to career education programs that, year-after-year, leave graduates with debt they cannot afford to repay: “The Department has had significant implementation issues with this regulation, including questions as to the accuracy of the data originally reported, the design of a system that would allow schools to challenge incorrect data, and the ability to provide the necessary technical assistance required. The last thing any of us want is to unnecessarily close down important programs — putting students on the street with limited or no other options.”
Read more at The Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/davidhalperin/devos-makes-clear-shell-t_b_14520628.html