MOHELA’s Reckless Business Decisions Have Harmed Student Loan Borrowers at Every Turn, From Blocking Public Service Workers From Debt Relief to Deflecting Borrowers’ Calls for Help
ADVISORY | WASHINGTON, D.C. — Tomorrow morning, Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC) Executive Director Mike Pierce and AFT President Randi Weingarten will join Members of Congress, student loan borrowers, and advocates at a press conference hosted by the Debt Collective. The group will call for the termination of the federal government’s contract with failed student loan servicer MOHELA.
Remarks from Pierce and Weingarten will build on The MOHELA Papers, a joint AFT-SBPC investigation into misconduct by the scandal-plagued student loan company.
When: Wednesday, May 22, 2024 at 9 AM ET
Where: House Triangle Press Area in Washington, D.C., or stream virtually on Rep. Pressley’s Facebook.
Who:
- Senator Ed Markey (MA)
- Representative Greg Casar (TX-35)
- Representative Ro Khanna (CA-17)
- Representative Ilhan Omar (MN-5)
- Representative Katie Porter (CA-47)
- Representative Ayanna Pressley (MA-7)
- Representative Chuy Garcia (IL-4)
- Representative Nydia Velázquez (NY-7)
- AFT President Randi Weingarten
- SBPC Executive Director Mike Pierce
- Young Invincibles Director of Higher Education & Workforce Policy and Advocacy Satra Taylor
- Debt Collective union members and advocates
What: Borrowers, members of Congress, and allies will call on the Department of Education to terminate MOHELA’s contract.
Background
The Higher Education Loan Authority of the State of Missouri—better known as MOHELA—is known for its central role in Biden v. Nebraska. The Supreme Court determined that the State of Missouri had standing to challenge President Biden’s student debt relief plan because of potential financial harm to MOHELA, ultimately blocking relief for 40 million federal student loan borrowers.
MOHELA is terrible at servicing student loans. Borrowers routinely document egregious servicing failures, including hours-long wait times to get help, delayed and lost paperwork, and incorrect information across MOHELA’s website, email communications, and social media. Despite these widespread problems, MOHELA had grown into one of the largest servicers of consumer loans in the world, handling more than $350 billion in private and federal student loans and managing accounts for federal student loan borrowers in every state.
After AFT and SBPC released The MOHELA Papers—a bombshell exposé of MOHELA’s servicing failures—Sen. Elizabeth Warren called a hearing before a key Senate committee focused on MOHELA. Borrowers, advocates, and experts cataloged MOHELA’s abuses, even though its CEO refused to appear. A few weeks later, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) announced that MOHELA was surrendering more than 1.5 million federal student loan borrowers’ accounts from its portfolio (nearly 20% of its total loan servicing business). This action and others have shown what borrowers have long understood: MOHELA’s position as a leader in the student loan industry was a mistake.
MOHELA recklessly chose to triple the size of its servicing business, despite an inability to serve those borrowers—evidenced by its complex call deflection scheme, which diverted borrowers away from help, even when it knew that millions of borrowers had problems that could only be solved by a live person. To protect all borrowers from MOHELA’s abusive practices, ED must fire MOHELA and strip the scandal-plagued firm of its remaining business.
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About Student Borrower Protection Center
The Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC) is a nonprofit organization focused on alleviating the burden of student debt for millions of Americans. The SBPC engages in advocacy, policymaking, and litigation strategy to rein in industry abuses, protect borrowers’ rights, and advance economic opportunity for the next generation of students.
Learn more at protectborrowers.org or follow SBPC on Twitter @theSBPC.