Educational Leadership

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos made clear even before taking office last year that she was more interested in protecting the companies that are paid by the government to collect federal student loan payments than in helping borrowers who have been driven into financial ruin by those same companies.

Ms. DeVos’ eagerness to shill for those corporate interests is apparent in a craven new policy statement from the Education Department. The document claims that the federal government can pre-empt state laws that rein in student loan servicing companies if such a law “undermines uniform administration of’’ the student loan program.

This legally baseless policy statement could easily have been written by the servicers, who will no doubt use it as a smoke screen when they are sued by states for using deceptive practices. The statement clearly is intended to intimidate state legislatures across the country that are considering proposals to curb well-documented abuses by this industry. Curbs are already being applied in California, Connecticut, Illinois and the District of Columbia, where loan servicers are required to have state licenses and submit to state regulation.