In a fresh controversy for the Trump administration, his education secretary is in trouble. Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos, was recently held in contempt of court. A federal judge ordered DeVos to stop collections on student loans for defunct Corinthian College. The school closed back in 2015 after being found to use dishonest advertising to enroll students.
As of now, DeVos and the Department of Education as continued to collect on those loans. This violates the judge’s order. Not only have they continued to collect, they have gone ahead with typical collection practices. That includes garnishing wages and keep the tax returns of the borrowers caught up in the scam.
As a result of this, a judge has imposed a $100,000 fine. DeVos herself will not be paying this fine, but the department. They stated how disappointed they are in the court’s decision. They also stated: “We acknowledged that servicers made unacceptable mistakes,” the department said. “Betsy DeVos directed FAFSA to take immediate action to help every impacted borrower. As of today, FAFSA has taken the actions needed to make every impacted borrower whole.”
The DeVos Violation
Sallie Kim, a federal magistrate judge in California, said, “Defendants have not provided evidence that they were unable to comply with the preliminary injunction, and the evidence shows only minimal efforts to comply with the preliminary injunction,” she issued in 2018, which ordered the Department stop collecting the loans.
“Here, there is no question that Defendants violated the preliminary injunction,” the court order reads. “There is also no question that Defendants’ violations harmed individual borrowers who were forced to repay loans.”
Still, Kim has also stated she will take further steps of the department continues to ignore her ruling. That might include sanctions being imposed on them or even the judge appointing someone to ensure the ruling is being complied with. She even threatened that someone could end up in jail if it continues.
