OPINION:
The Biden/Harris Department of Education (USDE) is perhaps the most progressive in American history. USDE continues to ignore the court system by doling out billions in student loan bailouts, fumbling the rollout of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), and cutting off options for students to attend alternatives to the traditional four-year school.
Here’s what we know. In 2013, then-California Attorney General Kamala Harris sued Corinthian Colleges, accusing the career college chain of false and predatory advertising, intentional misrepresentation to students, and more. As the Wall Street Journal editorial board notes, “she struggled to support her claims,” which caused the Obama administration to come to her rescue through its own investigations. Ultimately, the pressure was so immense it led Corinthian Colleges to close its doors to over 16,000 students in 2015.
Once a thriving university system educating hundreds of thousands of students across the nation, Harris’ bold move set the higher ed shakedown into motion. It’s easy to see this was a defining moment in Harris’ early political career: it was a huge win for the political left establishment who have harbored ill will against career colleges or any school they cannot control.
She is also a big supporter of Richard Cordray, who has been described as “left of Lenin.” She was proud to endorse his controversial rise to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and then lead the Office of Federal Student Aid at USDE. If you are a parent, you know that his “leadership” or lack thereof resulted in the disastrous rollout of the FAFSA a critical financial lifeline for students to attend college. His failure has prevented millions of students from hearing back about how much money they’ll need to fork over to attend college in the fall.
But that’s not all he’s known for. Our organization penned the Report, “Cordray’s Witchhunt at the Department of Education,” which details the lengths Cordray has gone to advance the failed student loan model and attack career colleges at any cost starting in the CFPB. His “harass-and-sue” approach began under President Obama, and perhaps with Corinthian Colleges, and found a home in USDE’s Investigations Group. Today, this multi-million government-funded operation has assembled a team of progressive political appointees, advocates with close ties to left-wing groups, and liberal attorneys to punish schools with next to no oversight.
Earlier this year, we also pulled the curtain back on how vast and all-consuming the Biden/Harris administration’s debt cancellation ambitions stretch. Our research uncovered a secretive, yearslong campaign bankrolled by a billionaire mega-donor and advanced by costly litigation to achieve the Education Department’s tunnel-visioned mission to deliver mass student loan bailout, prop up convention colleges and universities, and wipe out successful higher education businesses that stand in the way.
Inside the White House, the Biden/Harris administration vacillated on the student loan proposals and faced immense pressure to bow to the progressives. Politico’s writeup in 2022 described politics inside the White House to be “delicate.” The real answer is simple: President Biden resisted lobbying efforts to unilaterally cancel student loan debt because he feared it would spur resentment among Americans who had already paid off their loans; Vice President Harris internally pushed the administration to forgive student loans, regardless of the legal ramifications, and offered to be the public face of the campaign.
Sure enough, the largest student loan bailout took place early that year, discharging all remaining federal student loans for students who attended Corinthian Colleges. Harris took much of the credit, and still uses it as a top messaging point on the campaign trail.
The Biden/Harris administration has shown us time and time again that they’re fighting for the most progressive, borderline socialist, education policies from shutting down career colleges to broadening student loan bailouts. Not only is Vice President Harris’ rhetoric dangerous, but the Supreme Court has also declared it unconstitutional.
• Thomas Jones is the president of the American Accountability Foundation.
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