Consumers for a Strong Economy (CASE) has issued letter to the federal judge reviewing the preliminary approval of a $6 billion student loan settlement calling for additional students to be included. The letter asks that all students who file a BDR claim to be treated equally, not just students at select institutions, and provides a list of more than 100 students seeking fair treatment by the U. S. Department of Education.
The settlement applies to the borrower defense to loan repayment (BDR) forgiveness rule, a federal regulation issued by the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) that allows federal direct student loan borrowers who were defrauded by a college, university or career school to seek forgiveness of those loans.
In August, U.S. District Judge William Alsup of the Northern District of California granted preliminary approval for approximately 200,000 students from more than 150 schools and another 68,000 BDR claims that were improperly processed and would be fast-tracked by the Department of Education.
CASE’s letter points out that hundreds of thousands of other students may also have similar claims against their schools, but they are not reflected in the settlement. As an example, the letter provides the names of 137 University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC) students who responded to CASE’s “Great Terrapin Ripoff” survey expressing an interest in filing a BDR claim against one of the nation’s largest universities.
The Biden Administration has been using the BDR rule for years as a backdoor to forgive student loans. In doing so, it has used manipulative, discriminatory tactics to pick winners and losers among colleges, deliberately leaving many students in the dark. Our survey at just one school shows how many other students have similar claims against their schools, but they are not being treated equally.”
CASE Chairman Gerard Scimeca