Student debt relief is critical for borrowers of color—they experience disproportionate harm from student debt and stand to benefit the most from cancellation!

Student debt disproportionately harms communities of color. In Atlanta, Georgia, Black-majority zip codes see more debt growth & distress than white-majority ones.

But these Black-majority zip codes would received outsized benefits from cancellation!

⤷protectborrowers.org/the-south-has-…

Colleges withholding transcripts from students for unpaid debts is 𝐚𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞 and 𝐜𝐨𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐢𝐯𝐞.

Incarcerated borrowers face an impossible situation.

Without a proper income or resources to manage their student loan debt, their finances spiral out of control, making reentry all the much harder.

With 2U on the brink of collapse, consumerfinance.gov and U.S. Department of Education must act swiftly to ensure the 67k+ students in their programs don’t fall victim to their greed.

protectborrowers.org/advocates-soun…

No borrower should have to struggle with interest capitalization, runaway balances, and/or owing more than they initially borrowed.

To fail to hold servicers accountable is to fail borrowers.

When CA Department of Financial Protection & Innovation requested urgent borrower info from 15 student loan servicers, all but one responded in time—MOHELA.

So, @CalfironiaDFPI held MOHELA accountable for administrative penalties. 🔥

protectborrowers.org/california-dfp…

Just last month, consumerfinance.gov announced enforcement action against Bloom Institute of Technology and its disgraced founder Austen Allred for deception & predatory lending.

Silicon Valley and predatory bootcamps should take notice: If you cheat borrowers, you will face the consequences.

protectborrowers.org/cfpb-halts-sil…

It's time to hold MOHELA accountable. It's time to #FireMOHELA .

via Tilly Armstrong ➦ dailymail.co.uk/yourmoney/cons…

By banning functional non-competes like Training Repayment Agreement Provisions (TRAPs), the FTC is staying one step ahead of employers who use these contracts as workarounds to existing restrictions on traditional non-competes.

Good!

New: We just wrapped up a press conference with Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley Rep. Ilhan Omar Congressman Chuy García Congressman Greg Casar Ed Markey AFT Student Borrower Protection Center Young Invincibles and more to tell the Dept. of Education to Fire MOHELA.

Via our friends at Texas Appleseed, the practice of withholding transcripts over unpaid debt is harming Texans & the state’s economy.
 
12 other states have banned or partially banned this practice—Texas should protect their communities & do the same.

protectborrowers.org/texas-study-fi…

In other news, another round of much-needed student loan debt relief!
 
Nearly 5 million borrowers have now benefited from President Biden’s life changing debt cancellation. Lets go!

President Biden is pursuing every possible avenue to deliver student debt relief.

We must act boldly so that the millions of Americans who are struggling to pay for basic necessities are not crushed by mountains of debt for getting a college education.

'I went to two webinars to figure out MOHELA/consolidation and I have a lot of educational privilege in the form of a PhD and I was so confused the whole time I was trying to pay them.'

—Margaret, Louisiana

'Since my loans have been under MOHELA, I've never been able to speak with an actual person to answer my questions or concerns.”

—Kai, Louisiana

“MOHELA is a crook. A leech that somehow still bleeds you even when you think you've picked off the last one. Even though they've been 'servicing' my account for several years now, they still manage to muck it up.”

—Bob, Louisiana

'My PSLF employer verification was wrong, so my payments weren't counted. I've submitted a corrected form ~12x. When I tell MOHELA (can't call, was on hold for ~60 min a few times), they send a generic reply. They haven't resolved & I still have 9 payments left—which would be 0!'

'When I was going through the most difficult time of my life & experiencing extreme financial hardship, it was almost impossible to get in touch with [MOHELA] and there was no effort to help me. They were very cold and made me feel helpless.'

—Trisha, North Carolina