It's that time of year again: kids and college students in Missouri are home for the summer after another year of school.
But while those kids are celebrating their freedom and working summer jobs, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is working to roll back protections for students.
If you know me, you know it's one of my biggest priorities to fight waste, fraud, and abuse, and education is no exception.
That's why I'm so upset by this: Betsy DeVos is trying to dismantle the Department of Education's investigations into abuses by for-profit schools and not hold colleges accountable for misleading, cheating, or defrauding students.
Not only does she continue to hire former for-profit college executives and lobbyists, but under her leadership the Department of Education has effectivelyshut down the Student Aid Enforcement Unit - the office responsible for investigating predatory schools.
DeVos has rolled back a number of student protections, despite recommendations from the Department's independent watchdog, putting our young people's futures at risk.
Well, I think that's wrong. And I think it's against the entire mission of our Department of Education.
It is Secretary DeVos' job to protect our students in higher education, especially when they rely on federal student aid programs. And she's not doing a very good job of that.
I'm a proud product of Missouri's public schools. And I received a great education thanks in part to federal protections for students - that's why I've been working for years to make the student aid process more effective, with an eye toward making a college education affordable for all Missourians. And I've fought back against these predatory for-profit schools, particularly those that prey on veteran students.
For thousands of Missouri's young people, staggering student loan debt is already strangling the economic opportunities that are supposed to come with a college degree - and if phony education institutions are scamming our students, we've got to ensure they're held accountable.
We can do better than this - and we've got to keep critical protections in place for our students.
I'm calling Secretary DeVos out on this, and I'll continue fighting to make sure that every student who works hard gets a fair shot at an affordable college education.
3 comments:
DeVos has no right to hold this position and many know of her work to undermine public education to further her family ties to private education firms. This is just another in a long line of poor choices Trump has made to further paying back campaign donors or associates which will further his family businesses. When people chosen to lead a department cannot answer simple questions about what the Agency does it smacks of political patronage of the worse kind. Main question to ask is why is our Congress so silent on his operations and/or are they also profiting from the misfit system we are seeing develop?
This is pure ineptitude on the part of DeVos. The Department should be headed by someone at least conversant in the subject. Pitiful. Glad to see Congress getting involved in protecting students.
It’s actually time to Illiminate the entire Department, and send all of that dead wood home to get a real job, and include in that number Energy and EPA—$21 trillion debt. Those departments had sunsets that the bureaucrats conveniently forgot about— drain the cesspool!!
Harvey HUTCHINSON 303-522-6622 voice&text
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