The Department of Education today proposed a new Borrower Defense Rule that would abandon important protections designed to stop for-profit colleges from forcing students to give up their right to take schools to court for wrongdoing by forcing them to arbitrate any claims. Forced arbitration provisions, together with bans on the right of students to band together in class actions and gag clauses that prevent students from discussing arbitration proceedings with other students, have stopped students from accessing the court system to bring claims of wrongdoing against for-profit schools, including the now-shuttered Corinthian Colleges and ITT Technical Institute.
The proposed rule is here.
Rolling Stone describes the Department's proposal this way: "Betsy DeVos’ New Proposal Aligns Her With For-Profit Colleges Over Debt-Saddled Students." Or more succinctly: "The Department of Education wants to make it harder for screwed-over students to get their money back." That article is here.
