Veteran and Student Loan Borrower Tasha Berkhalter to Warn Lawmakers of Risks to Military Families
May 6, 2025 | WASHINGTON, D.C. — Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), the Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee and senior member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, will chair an education forum today at 2:30 PM ET to spotlight the Trump Administration’s radical effort to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education (ED). This forum will feature testimony from Tasha Berkhalter, a U.S. Army veteran and student loan borrower who had her debt discharged by the Biden Administration after being defrauded by a predatory for-profit college.
Earlier this year, the Trump Administration fired the government officials responsible for helping borrowers like Tasha invoke their rights to debt relief, along with officials responsible for enforcing higher education laws against predatory schools. These unprecedented and illegal firings were part of a mass purge of ED officials that dismantled key oversight functions across the agency.
“I am grateful to the hard-working Department of Education staff who eventually processed my Borrower Defense application,” said U.S. Army veteran and student loan borrower Tasha Berkhalter in prepared testimony submitted to the committee. “I was saddened to hear that entire teams at the Department of Education responsible for processing [Borrower Defense] applications, complaints from students about their schools and those who were responsible for holding predatory schools accountable were recently fired.”
Tasha Berkhalter’s complete written testimony is available here: https://protectborrowers.org/testimony-of-tasha-berkhalter-before-senate-appropriations
Over the past 100 days, the Trump Administration has taken a series of illegal executive actions that threaten public education across our nation, aim to push affordable and high-quality higher education further out of reach for working families, and push millions of student loan borrowers further into the red.
“I am worried that these efforts to dismantle the Department of Education will make it even harder for student veterans like me to pursue our dream of a higher education and achieve the American Dream for ourselves and our families,” continued Berkhalter in her prepared testimony.
More information on today’s forum, including a link to view the forum online, is available here: https://www.youtube.com/live/1iZtEH3x2gg
Further Reading
Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC) press release on polling Trump’s efforts to abolish ED: New Poll Confirms: Trump’s Plan to Abolish Department of Education is Extremely Unpopular Among Voters
SBPC press release on illegal reduction of force at ED: Trump and McMahon’s Mass Firing at ED Stokes Flames of Ongoing Chaos Campaign
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About Student Borrower Protection Center
Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC) is a nonprofit organization focused on eliminating the burden of student debt for millions of Americans. We engage in advocacy, policymaking, and litigation strategy to rein in industry abuses, protect borrowers’ rights, and advance racial and economic justice.
Learn more at protectborrowers.org or follow SBPC on Twitter @theSBPC.