Education secretary should be on the side of students

Betsy DeVos has been portrayed by Democrats as something of a villain — with comparisons made to even Cruella De Vil. It’s easy to think these attacks are hyperbole from a partisan cast of hacks intent on stopping her agenda.

But her policies have hurt students across this country.

Of all the president’s divisive Cabinet officials — she is the least popular. Even among Republicans. Part of this is of course because of her lack of knowledge and experience on education issues. But it’s also because her efforts as the secretary of Education have actively undermined public education and access to higher education for students who don’t hail from families as well-heeled as her own.

One of the most shocking examples is her attempt to roll back an Obama-era borrower defense rule that protected students who were scammed by for-profit colleges. President Obama’s rule made it easier for these students to get their loans forgiven. So, if you attended a school that committed fraud and you were harmed as a result, you’re not held responsible. That’s reasonable.

But Secretary DeVos disagrees. She promulgated a rule which would require students to prove they relied on a false claim from the institution in their decision-making process. This is a ridiculous and artificial hoop that the secretary is now asking students to jump through. The real-world effect will be that fewer students who were victimized by scams will get their money back.  

Supporting for-profit institutions has become a pet project for the secretary — but now she’s actively working to support these institutions’ needs at the expense of regular people.

Last year, I met a woman named Artemisa, who didn’t have to wonder what it felt like to be scammed, because it happened to her.

She wanted to be a nurse, and she chose to attend Heald College because they ran ads on TV boasting an 85 percent job placement rate after graduation. But that 85 percent was a lie, and it wasn’t just a little white lie. Their real job placement rate was nearly zero.

Heald College was a historic college, with a campus in my district in California’s Central Valley. Heald opened in 1863, and just about a decade ago was bought by Corinthian Colleges. Coninthian, the for-profit chain, ran Heald into the ground in just five years.

Artemisa didn’t know that shortly after her time at Heald, they’d close their doors and leave hundreds of students hanging. So, she spent years studying, doing homework, taking tests, and she graduated with $40,000 in debt. But no one would hire her.

Because the degree she earned was tainted by the college’s corruption and ineptitude.

Now Betsy DeVos is doing more to protect defunct schools like Corinthian, that have scammed thousands of Artemisas, rather than protecting the students who were defrauded and left with loan debt that they can’t pay.

It’s hard to say why the secretary of Education won’t stand up for students stuck in this bind. Maybe it’s because when she hears $40,000 all she hears is a new Rolex, or, and this is true, one tenth of one percent of one of her 10 yachts.

She’s butchered the whole thing by violating a court order that required her to uphold the rule.

And, that’s not even the craziest part of this whole thing. Both the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives and the GOP-controlled Senate agreed on this issue. Both chambers voted to overturn her new rule.

Personally, it keeps me up at night to think that these students may never get the justice they deserve. And frankly, if she’s really that concerned about saving a buck, maybe she should talk to her billionaire friends in the corrupt college industry.

To this day, Artemisa is still paying off her debt, even though she was scammed, even though the college she went to doesn’t even exist anymore.

To all the students in the same situation as Artemisa, I want you to know that even if the administration and the secretary of Education refuse to stand up for you, I won’t stop fighting to get you the help that you deserve.

Maybe Betsy DeVos isn’t Cruella De Vil. But she’s actively working against our students. And we’ll do everything we can to stop her.

Harder represents the 10th District of California.