WASHINGTON — A federal court has ruled that the Education Department violated privacy laws with regard to students defrauded by the Corinthian for-profit college chain.
In a break with Obama administration policy, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced in December that some students cheated by the now-defunct schools would only get a part of their federal student loan forgiven. In order to determine how much to forgive, the agency analyzes average earnings of graduates from similar programs.
But a California district court ruled late Friday that the department’s use of Social Security Administration data in order to calculate loan forgiveness violates the Privacy Act. The court ordered that the Education Department stop the practice and stop debt collection from these students.
The court also said that it needs to hear more from the agency and plaintiffs in the class-action suit in order to decide whether or not to compel the agency to return to full loan forgiveness. A hearing is scheduled for June 4.
The decision marks an important victory for students challenging the partial loan forgiveness rule.
Toby Merill, director of the Project on Predatory Student Lending at Harvard University, which is representing the students, hailed the decision.
“The notion that students got anything other than negative value from Corinthian has been roundly disproved by student experience and the judgment of employers and the legitimate higher education sector,” Merill said in a statement.
An Education Department spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment Saturday.
DeVos said the approach of the Obama administration left room for potential abuse and unfairly burdened taxpayers who ended up paying for those loans with their taxes. DeVos said her new procedure will take into account the value a student received from their education and compensate them for what they didn’t get.
