Betsy DeVos grins away with Donald Trump

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is wishing thousands of people defrauded by for-profit colleges a merry Christmas by sticking them with student loan debt that should have been forgiven. Corinthian College scammed students by lying about job placement numbers, leaving many with major debt and worthless degrees or credits they couldn’t transfer to better programs. Under the Obama administration, those students were due full debt relief. But DeVos is instituting income-based partial debt relief based on comparisons with other programs:

Relief will be tiered. Defrauded students whose current earnings are less than 50% of peers from a similar program will receive full relief, according to a press release. Those who earn between 50% and 59% of their peers, will see half of their debt forgiven. In the least generous bracket, those who earn 90% or more compared to their peers will see 10% of their debt wiped away. The release said this will fairly compensate borrowers based on "damages incurred." But some critics say this measure will be inaccurate because it will look at the earnings of students who completed their degrees, when many Corinthian students did not finish their programs.

You’re making 49 percent of what people with a theoretically similar degree make, you get full repayment. You’re making 51 percent, you’re still stuck with half the student debt you were scammed into taking on in the first place.

DeVos said this plan “protects taxpayers from being forced to shoulder massive costs that may be unjustified,” as the Republican Congress voted and Donald Trump signed a tax bill that will cut her taxes by something like $2.7 million a year.