Senate Rebukes DeVos with Bipartisan Vote Overturning Cruel Borrower Defense Rule

WASHINGTON - March 11, 2020 -

National Education Association President Lily Eskelsen García released the following statement in reaction to the Senate’s Wednesday passage of S.J. Res. 56, which overturns the Department of Education’s revision of the 2019 Borrower Defense to Repayment rule and amounts to a significant, bipartisan rebuke of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s anti-student agenda:  

“Today’s bipartisan vote in the Senate is a victory for students and shows, once again, just how out of touch Betsy DeVos’s agenda is with the American people. By voting to overturn DeVos’s Borrower Defense rule, which punished students who were the victims of fraud and undercut protections for students lured by predatory lenders with false promises and deceptive advertising, the Senate spoke loud and clear in rebuking the Secretary of Education.

“Republicans and Democrats in both houses of Congress have now rejected the rule, which punishes students whose schools close before they can graduate. They are saying no to DeVos, whose efforts are especially cruel to the most vulnerable students targeted by these predatory institutions.

“That is why educators around the country today are calling on Donald Trump to follow the bipartisan majorities in Congress by signing this legislation when it reaches his desk.”