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While policymakers strengthened consumer protections for most credit products in the wake of the financial crisis, the rights of student loan borrowers continue to lag far behind. At every step of the lending and repayment process, 44.7 million American student loan borrowers still lack the same basic rights enjoyed by...

Testimony of Katherine Welbeck Before the California Assembly Select Committee on Student Debt: Student Debt Impacts on California Neighborhoods

The student loan industry has repeatedly demonstrated that it is unable to do business in a fair and honest manner, these cases also reveal how the absence of enforceable, industry-specific standards for common practices has left borrowers’ vulnerable to a staggering range of abuses.

Given growing evidence of widespread predatory practices across the student loan industry as federal regulators are charged with failing to to their job of protecting borrowers, the organizations co-sponsoring AB 376, the California Student Borrower Bill of Rights, are doubling down on their call to the state legislature to pass...

Setting the Record Straight: ED’s Failures in Student Borrower Protection By Ben Kaufman | November 26, 2019 In October, the Department of Education (ED) and its Secretary, Betsy DeVos were held in contempt and fined $100,000 for violating a court order preventing them from illegally collecting on defrauded students’ debts....

Today, Democracy Forward, on behalf of Student Debt Crisis, sued the Trump administration for shirking their legal obligation to supervise large student loan servicers, specifically those servicing federal loans. The suit, filed against Trump-appointed Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger and their respective agencies, cites efforts...

DeVos and Navient are losing this fight in court. Navient is being sued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the States of Illinois, Washington, Pennsylvania, California, and Mississippi for illegal servicing practices.

The Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC) is announcing the addition of six new team members to support the organization's work to end the student debt crisis. New staff include: Tamara Cesaretti as Counsel; Rebecca Maurer as Counsel and Program Manager for the Student Loan Law Initiative; Kat Welbeck as Counsel;...

Recently, lawmakers have been raising the pressure on the CFPB to fight for student loan borrowers, calling on Director Kraninger to get to work. Below is a recap of lawmakers' recent exchanges with Director Kraninger around the Bureau's failure to stand up for student loan borrowers and the need for...

What Betsy DeVos’s Brush with the Law Reveals About Our Broken Student Loan System By Mike Pierce | October 24, 2019 Earlier this month, a federal judge in California held a hearing to consider whether Education Secretary Betsy DeVos should be held in contempt of court. At issue: student loan...