Free Republic

The Trump administration is further delaying Obama-era protections for students defrauded by for-profit colleges, saying it needs more time to write new regulations. Tuesday’s announcement renewed criticism by Democrats and advocacy groups that the administration favors the interests of for-profit universities over students. The Education Department posted a notice in the Federal Register saying it wants to delay the borrower defense rule until July 1, 2019, while a new rule is being written. The department estimated that postponing the rule will save taxpayers $46 million. The regulation allows students to have their loans forgiven if their schools deceived them about...

Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee released the following statement on Secretary DeVos’ decision to further delay the effective date of the “borrower defense” rule for another two years, which provides relief to students who have been defrauded by predatory for-profit colleges, including Corinthian Colleges. In June, Secretary DeVos delayed implementation of the rule, which was set to go into effect July 1, 2017. Today’s notice delays the borrower defense rule until at least July 1, 2019.“Given the significant number of former for-profit college executives employed by the Department of...

State Senate Bill 169 would have codified Obama-era Title IX guidanceCalifornia Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed Monday a bill to codify the aggressive Obama-era campus federal sexual-assault guidance, echoing concerns about the rights of the accused raised previously by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. Mr. Brown said it was “time to pause and survey the land” before moving forward with more regulations “when we haven’t yet ascertained the full impact of what we recently enacted” with California’s 2014 affirmative-consent law. “Since this law was enacted, however, thoughtful legal minds have increasingly questioned whether federal and state actions to prevent and redress sexual...

Brenda Tracy (left), talks with Sen. Jeff Merkley, Ron Wyden and PSU President... Oregon’s colleges and universities must resist any Trump administration plans to walk back federal rules directing how schools respond to sexual assaults on campus. That was the takeaway from a Monday morning roundtable discussion at Portland State University. Oregon Democratic Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley and sexual assault survivor Brenda Tracy held an informal discussion with PSU Title IX leaders and sexual assault prevention staffers. The meeting came less than a month after Education Secretary Betsy DeVos rescinded Obama-era guidelines on how schools should handle...

Good news for college men: You’re welcome again on campus. On Friday, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos ripped up the Obama administration’s one-sided rules on how colleges and universities handle accusations of sexual assault and misconduct. The rules, imposed in 2011, were so stacked against the accused — usually young men — that dozens of innocent male students were branded as rapists, kicked out of school and robbed of future job opportunities. Those with sufficient money and fortitude managed to get their names cleared in real courts of law — where rules of evidence, due process and reasonable standards of proof...

To those of us who have followed the Obama Administration's machinations on Title IX, and much else, it does not come as much of a surprise that the last two Secretaries of Education skirted traditional practice, if not legal guidelines, in consulting no one when they undertook their transformation of Title IX. "The Department imposed these regulatory burdens without affording notice and the opportunity for public comment," the new letter reads. "Under these circumstances, the Department has decided to withdraw the above-referenced guidance documents in order to develop an approach to student sexual misconduct that responds to the concerns of...

The Trump administration on Friday scrapped Obama-era guidance on investigating campus sexual assault, replacing it with new instructions that allow universities to require higher standards of evidence when handling complaints. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has said that President Barack Obama’s policy had been unfairly skewed against those accused of assault and had “weaponized” the Education Department to “work against schools and against students.” The change is the latest in Trump’s broader effort to roll back Obama policies. Women’s rights groups slammed Friday’s decision, saying it will discourage students from reporting assault. The guidance released in 2011 and then updated in...

College hearings into alleged misconduct ‘must be fair and impartial,’ education secretary saysEducation Secretary Betsy DeVos on Friday rescinded the Obama administration’s Title IX letter on campus sexual assault, sparking outrage from her foes but relief from those who have lambasted the policy for eroding due process by favoring the accuser over the accused. Ms. DeVos also issued an interim guidance for schools on “how to investigate and adjudicate allegations of campus sexual misconduct under federal law” while the department proceeds with its rulemaking to replace the 2011 policy. “This interim guidance will help schools as they work to combat...

A mercenary air force that became a symbol of the U.S. occupation of Iraq is back in action—this time in Central Africa, supporting a shadowy American U.S. Special Forces commando operation targeting the Lord’s Resistance Army. In late January, a source on the ground in Central African Republic spotted a Sikorsky S-61 helicopter with the registry number N408RC carrying American Special Forces troops. The LRA, a cultish band of thieves and rapists led by warlord Joseph Kony, is most active in the forested region where Central African Republic, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo meet. In 2010, President...

It is very rare for a federal agency to admit having made a mistake and rarer still for the secretary of a cabinet department to announce a U-turn in policy in a heavily publicized speech. But that is exactly what Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos did on September 7. Speaking at George Mason University, Secretary DeVos went straight after the most contentious element of the Obama Administration’s higher education policy, namely its interpretation of Title IX of the Higher Education Amendments of 1972. The language of the statute was twisted by bureaucratic fiat (a “Dear Colleague” letter) from prohibiting discrimination...

University of Baltimore president Kurt Schmoke defended his decision to invite U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to speak at the school’s fall commencement, even as dozens of students protested against the invitation Monday and hundreds more signed a petition demanding he change his mind. Schmoke, a former mayor of Baltimore, said students should reserve judgment on the controversial member of President Donald Trump’s cabinet. Hosting DeVos, he said, is “in the best tradition of the university.” Dozens of students participated in a “class walk out” demonstration Monday afternoon, the first of two protests planned for today. UB junior Tracy...

"One university leader was rightly appalled when he was asked by an Office for Civil Rights official: 'Why do you care about the rights of the accused?'" – Betsy DeVosOne of the many disasters the Obama Administration put in place was a reinterpretation of Title IX that led to colleges setting up kangaroo courts that were heavily stacked against men in rape cases. Men were not given due process; the standard of guilt was changed from beyond a shadow of a doubt to “a preponderance of the evidence;” men were denied meaningful counsel; men were not allowed access to information...

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos vowed Thursday to replace what she branded the “failed system” of campus sexual assault enforcement, to ensure fairness for victims and the accused. “Instead of working with schools . . . ,” DeVos said, “the prior administration weaponized the Office for Civil Rights.” “We must do better because the current approach isn’t working,” she said. DeVos spoke to about 100 invited guests at George Mason University, where protesters had gathered outside, worried that she would announce changes to the way sexual violence cases are handled on campuses across the country. “One rape is one too many,”...

Oregon's plan to evaluate schools' performance, help schools judged to be weak performers and otherwise carry out federal education mandates fully meets federal government standards, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos told Gov. Kate Brown Wednesday. "I am pleased to approve Oregon's... plan," DeVos wrote to Brown and state schools chief Salam Noor. "I congratulate you on this significant accomplishment." All states are required to file plans showing how they will comply with the federal Every Student Succeeds Act. Unlike the widely despised No Child Left Behind law, the new federal K-12 law leaves a lot of discretion to states....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump is donating three months of his salary to the Department of Education. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders says Trump chose to give the department $100,000. His first quarter salary donation went to the Department of Interior. (TWEET-AT-LINK) Education Secretary Betsy DeVos says the donation is being used to pay for a science, technology, engineering and mathematics camp sponsored by the department.....

“This is not a drill,” NEA President Lily Eskelsen García told the 2017 NEA Representative Assembly. “We stand in a dangerous place. We stand between a profiteer and his profits. We have a president who resides at the dangerous intersection of arrogance and ignorance and travels with a moral compass that always points to his own self-interest.” In her keynote address on Sunday, Eskelsen García laid out in stark terms the dangers posed by the agenda of President Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, but reminded the 7,500 delegates gathered in the Boston Convention Center that “we can win. We...

The president of the country's largest labor union, Lily Eskelsen Garcia of the National Education Association, told delegates at her organization's annual gathering that they would not work with the Trump administration because the president and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos could not be trusted to do what is in the best interests of children. Eskelsen Garcia just addressed the 96th NEA Representative Assembly meeting in Boston, accusing President Donald Trump of residing "at the dangerous intersection of arrogance and ignorance" and labeled DeVos as "the queen of for-profit privatization of public education." She said in part: "Let me say this...

Legislation to shut down the controversial and unconstitutional U.S. Department of Education was introduced in Congress this week by Representative Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), a leading constitutional conservative. The bill, H.R. 899, would help President Donald Trump follow through on his campaign statements suggesting a desire to abolish the department as well as the Obama-backed “Common Core” school standards. The legislation was introduced on the same day U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos was confirmed by the Senate.If and when the bill is passed into law, the one-sentence measure would give the powerful U.S. Education Department until the end of 2018 to wind down...

The head of the Education Department’s student financial aid office resigned Tuesday night over what he said were simmering management problems at the agency that culminated in a dispute with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos over her insistence he testify before a congressional oversight panel.

QUINCY, MA — It’s no secret that President Donald Trump isn’t the most popular guy around Massachusetts and concern from residents over his policies and political actions is understandable a state known for voting blue, but one Quincy woman is taking her worry to the court. Rossi Wade, formerly of Plymouth and now of the City of Presidents, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Boston against the United States Government and Trump, accusing the commander in chief of discrimination, mental anguish, and mental cruelty against her. The lawsuit additionally states that she suffered a loss of enjoyment of...