Warren accuses DeVos of helping for-profit colleges ‘swindle’ students

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Thursday accused Education Secretary Betsy DeVos of helping for-profit colleges “swindle” students by “illegally delaying” an Obama-era Department of Education rule.

In a series of tweets Thursday afternoon, Warren said DeVos is making it “easier & more profitable for schools to swindle students while keeping their fraud hidden from courts.”

“Secretary DeVos made it nearly impossible for student cheated by #4profit schools to ever get out from under their massive debt burdens,” Warren tweeted, adding that she’s glad Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey “has announced that she’ll fight @BetsyDeVosED & this illegal delay in court.”

.@usedgov Sec @BetsyDeVosED put bogus #4profit colleges ahead of students, vets & taxpayers by illegally delaying an Obama Admin rule.

— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) June 15, 2017

Secretary DeVos made it easier & more profitable for schools to swindle students while keeping their fraud hidden from courts.

— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) June 15, 2017

And Secretary DeVos made it nearly impossible for student cheated by #4profit schools to ever get out from under their massive debt burdens.

— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) June 15, 2017

DeVos is establishing rulemaking committees to rework the gainful employment and borrower defense to repayment rules, which were established under the Obama administration. The gainful employment rule would make sure colleges actually prepare students for good-paying jobs that allow them to pay back their student loans, while the borrower defense to repayment rule protects students from predatory lending practices. 

{mosads}The Trump administration announced it would redo the two rules on Wednesday, prompting praise from Career Education Colleges and Universities, a group that represents for-profit schools.

“Students shouldn’t have the pause button hit on their consumer protections, and this isn’t the time for the Department of Education to step back from their responsibility to protect federal loan borrowers,” a spokesman said in a statement.

Warren is an outspoken critic of DeVos. At the beginning of June, she launched “DeVos Watch,” a coordinated effort to ramp up scrutiny of her management of the agency.