Washington (CNN) The American Federation of Teachers union sued Education Secretary Betsy DeVos Thursday, alleging that the department has mismanaged a federal program that grants teachers and other public service workers loan forgiveness after they make 10 years of payments.
About 1% of the more than 73,000 borrowers who have applied for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program have been granted relief since the program was created in 2007, according to department data.
The lawsuit blames the Department of Education for denying applicants "on arbitrary and capricious grounds" and failing to put a process in place to review erroneous decisions or ensure loan servicing companies provide accurate guidance to borrowers about their eligibility.
"Instead of helping the millions of Americans owed debt relief under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, DeVos has hurt and pauperized them. And instead of working with lawmakers to improve the program that millions of teachers, firefighters, nurses and first responders deserve, DeVos has vandalized it," said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, in a statement.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Education declined to comment on pending litigation.
SteveBartmanIncident on July 11st, 2019 at 15:58 UTC »
The federal government induced me to borrow gobs of money based on this apparently false promise. Fuck Betsy DeVos, and fuck the Department of Education.
Now instead of ever buying a house, I have to save for an apparently inevitable tax bomb after 25 years working for a public institution at a depressed wage. And the state folks want to cut my retirement benefits.
DroopyMcCool on July 11st, 2019 at 15:45 UTC »
The real shame in this is that people used this program to make long term financial decisions. People set up payment plans based on the 120 payment period and in some cases PSLF even pushed some to decide to go to college in the first place. The collapse of this program will lead to financial ruin for people, many of whom are already a decade into a relatively low paying career.
StevenSanders90210 on July 11st, 2019 at 15:37 UTC »
In the running contest for "worst cabinet member" Betsy might be the winner.