BIDEN TALKS HBCU FUNDING, STUDENT DEBT ON MLK DAY: President Joe Biden on Monday used his Martin Luther King Jr. Day address to tout his administration’s policies that are aimed at helping Black college students and student loan borrowers.
—“I have your back” on student debt relief, Biden told the audience at an event hosted by the National Action Network, a civil rights group founded by the Rev. Al Sharpton.
—Biden sharply criticized Republicans for opposing his plan while supporting pandemic relief for small businesses. “Currently the only thing blocking my plan is them suing us,” Biden said of Republican officials. “My administration is making the case to the Supreme Court, and I’m confident — I’m confident — in the legal authority to carry out our plan.”
—Biden also noted that the benefits of the student debt relief plan, which provides extra loan forgiveness to Pell grant recipients, would especially benefit Black borrowers. “Seventy percent of Black college students receive Pell Grants,” Biden said. “For many black students, the saving will be significant [under] my debt relief plan, including wiping out their student debt completely. That’s a real game changer.”
— Biden also promoted his administration’s effort to boost money for historically Black colleges and universities: “We’ve delivered nearly $6 billion in funding to HBCUs to invest in the next generation of Black leaders,” Biden said. “That’s a record, that’s a fact, and it’s not going to stop.”
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COLLEGES APPEAL MAJOR ‘BORROWER DEFENSE’ SETTLEMENT: The sweeping class-action settlement over the Education Department’s backlog of student loan fraud claims is heading to a federal appeals court.
— Two for-profit education companies and a non-profit college are asking the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to stop the sweeping settlement, which is poised to automatically cancel billions of dollars of federal student loans owed by hundreds of thousands of borrowers who claim they were defrauded by their college.
— The settlement was approved by a federal judge in November. The judge, William Alsup of the Northern District of California, ruled that the Biden administration has the power to discharge the large amount of student debt. He rejected arguments by several colleges that the agreement is illegal and unfair to them.
— Those entities — Lincoln Educational Services Corp., American National University, and Everglades College, Inc. — filed notices on Friday that they plan to appeal the decision. They’re also asking Alsup to put the settlement on hold while the appeal is pending.
— Under the deal, the Education Department was set to discharge more than $6 billion owed by approximately 200,000 borrowers who had pending claims against one of 151 schools. The list is comprised mostly of for-profit colleges for which the department said it had some evidence of misconduct.
—But the colleges argue that they are being unfairly tarnished by their inclusion in the settlement. “Being publicly branded a presumptive wrongdoer by one’s primary federal regulator, based on undisclosed evidence (or no evidence at all), is a denial of due process,” the colleges wrote in a court filing on Friday.
EDUCATION DEPARTMENT SETS HEARING ON DEVRY U. APPEAL: An Education Department judge plans to hold a hearing next week on DeVry University’s appeal of a $23 million penalty stemming from fraud-related loan discharges for its former students.
— The Biden administration last year moved to recoup from DeVry the partial cost of granting “borrower defense” claims filed by its former students. The Education Department ruled that the students were entitled to loan forgiveness because DeVry misled them about their job prospects.
— The case marks the first time the Education Department has ever sought to force a college that’s still operating to reimburse the cost of forgiving federal student loans owed by its former students. It could set an important precedent about the scope of the department’s powers to hold colleges financially responsible when officials find they misled or deceived students.
— The Education Department’s main finding against DeVry is that the university systematically misled prospective students by claiming its students enjoyed a 90 percent job placement rate when the actual rate was only 58 percent on average.
— DeVry has argued that the Education Department lacks the authority to pursue the company for the cost of the loan discharges. DeVry is also suing the department in federal court, arguing that the agency hasn’t followed its own rules and process for borrower defense claims.
CONGRESSWOMAN HIT BY CAR: Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.), a member of the House education committee, is recovering at home after she and her husband were injured when they struck by a car on Friday, according to her office.
— Bonamici and her husband were hit by the car while they were “walking across a street in a crosswalk” as they were leaving an event in Portland, said Natalie Crofts, a Bonamici spokesperson. “She was treated for a concussion and laceration to her head. He was treated for minor injuries.”
— Bonamici was released from the hospital and is expected to make a full recovery, Crofts said.
— In a statement on Twitter, Bonamici on Sunday thanked first responders and health care workers. “My husband and I are continuing to recover at home, and are grateful for your kind thoughts and support,” she said.
HOUSE GOP FINALIZES APPROPS LEADERS: Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.) has officially been named as the top GOP appropriator overseeing education funding in the House.
—The House Steering Committee on Monday approved Appropriations Chair Kay Granger’spicks for her dozen subcommittee chiefs, known as “cardinals.”
—Aderholt, a veteran GOP lawmaker, will chair the subcommittee overseeing funding for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education.
— Democrats on the House education committee released a report Monday that details a history of “a sustained, and at times bipartisan, effort to advance the religious liberty interests of a vocal minority at the expense of the civil and legal rights of all.“
— With New College gambit, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis aims to “recapture higher education”: The Tampa Bay Times.
— A new tool helps teachers detect if artificial intelligence wrote an assignment: NPR.
— If affirmative action ends, college admissions may be changed forever: The New York Times.
— Indiana University student stabbed in “racially motivated” attack, school says: The New York Times.
