Friend,

We already knew that Donald Trump’s billionaire Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos was out of touch with struggling student borrowers before COVID-19. But now she’s doubling down. What do you think of DeVos’s response to this pandemic?

Here are just a few of the things that Betsy DeVos has actually said and done during this public health and ensuing economic crisis:

• DeVos and one of her top deputies, who happens to be a former for-profit college industry lobbyist, rejected a website designed to help defrauded student loan borrowers apply for loan forgiveness -- because it made the process “too easy.” She backtracked on the decision only after being exposed in a whistleblower complaint!
• DeVos tried to redirect part of the $13.5 billion in COVID-19 relief designed to fund K-12 educational programs based on poverty and need to independent and religious schools instead.
• DeVos is actively combating efforts to include undocumented students among the recipients of COVID-19 relief aid -- funds that were specifically designated for helping students in need.
• Under DeVos's "leadership", the Trump Education Department made it even harder for colleges to increase financial aid for students who have lost their jobs or family income in the current economic crisis. Even more egregiously, it continues to collect student loan payments from borrowers in default -- even though the CARES Act specifically suspended those collections (and the department had previously agreed it would comply).

Allied Progress was created to stand up for consumers by holding policymakers and predatory financial institutions accountable. We are fully committed to making sure public officials are advancing policies in the public interest. It’s become abundantly clear that is something that Betsy DeVos and her Education Department are not doing!

Friend, you have the right to know what public officials are doing when they are supposed to be serving you. So we want to hear from you: What do you think of Betsy DeVos’s words and actions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic impact on the students she is supposed to be serving? Take our quick survey to let us know!

Share your thoughts

-- Derek Martin, Allied Progress

Sources:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/21/our-schoolchildren-are-paying-price-betsy-devoss-failures/
https://www.npr.org/2020/06/19/879633830/education-dept-is-making-it-harder-for-colleges-to-boost-student-aid-during-cris?utm_campaign=storyshare&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social
https://www.usnews.com/news/education-news/articles/2020-06-23/whistleblower-education-department-killed-website-that-made-applying-for-loan-forgiveness-too-easy