Biden-Harris Administration Can Enact Real Student Protections Without Congress
WASHINGTON, DC – The incoming administration can take immediate steps to improve protections for students in higher education, without Congressional action. Over the past two months, Student Defense has laid out its 100 Day Docket initiative, identifying opportunities for the next Secretary of Education to strengthen enforcement efforts and take administrative actions to protect students. These proposals, which have already garnered public support from senators and state attorneys general, include exercising underused authorities in the Higher Education Act to foster equity, implementing stronger protections for students, identifying new pathways to student loan relief, and bringing accountability to predatory colleges and other actors.
“After four years of neglect and mismanagement by Secretary DeVos, we have an exciting opportunity for real change at the Department of Education,” said Student Defense President Aaron Ament.
Student Defense’s 100 Day Docket initiative seeks to identify opportunities where the next administration will have the power to take immediate actions to deliver tangible benefits for millions of student loan borrowers, and to reinvigorate the Department’s enforcement powers to stamp out predatory colleges.
More information about the project is available at www.100DayDocket.org.
100 Day Docket proposals ready for immediate implementation include:
- Holding college owners and executives personally liable for their schools’ predatory and reckless conduct. Endorsed by Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and cited by six Senate Democrats in an October oversight letter.
- Expanding debt relief to more student loan borrowers, through the use of existing closed school discharge and borrower defense authorities. Endorsed by Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), and cited by five Senate Democrats in an October oversight letter.
- Providing student loan discharges to more than 350,000 permanently disabled borrowers the Department has already identified as eligible for “total and permanent disability” relief. Endorsed by Senator Chris Coons (D-DE).
- Restoring automatic relief for students when colleges close – Endorsed by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh, and Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro.
- Reinvigorating enforcement against predatory colleges and protect the next generation of students. Student Defense’s proposal was featured in a special Democracy Journal symposium on the future of enforcement in a Biden administration.
- Using the Department of Education’s undeveloped authorities to protect students and promote equity in higher education. Student Defense’s paper, published with the Brookings Institution, lays out how a future Secretary of Education could use the Higher Education Act’s Direct Loan program authorities to mandate “quality assurance” and accountability programs and promote racial equity.
- Fixing the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program through administrative reforms and other executive actions.
- Protecting students from sexual violence by reversing the Trump administration’s Title IX amendments that dramatically weakened protections for survivors of sexual assault.
- Ensuring states can protect student loan borrowers by revoking the Notice of interpretation regarding the preemption of state laws as applied to student loan servicing companies.