When Congress ordered the Department of Education to stop garnishing the wages of borrowers who defaulted on their student loans as part of the CARES Act, the coronavirus relief bill passed in March, it took months for thousands to feel the impact in their paychecks.
The wage-garnishment episode is a prominent example of the type of task the Department’s Office of Federal Student Aid is challenged with on a daily basis: operationally complex — turning the wage-garnishment system off and on requires coordination between a government contractor, employers and FSA itself — and high stakes for borrowers.
“Whether it was incompetence, malice, or a mix of both, the Department of Education’s student loan bank under Betsy DeVos was a disaster and oversaw the illegal garnishment of the wages of thousands of struggling borrowers during the pandemic,” Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren said in a statement to MarketWatch. “Students deserve leadership at this office who will follow the law and make this program work for students.
“One of the things Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has charged me with is delivering exceptional customer service to our more than 42 million federal student-loan borrowers,” Brown said in the video. “I’m here today to discuss an instance in which we did not meet our own standards.” The concept behind FSA’s special structure is to give its leaders “the latitude they need to do good work,” said Clare McCann, deputy director for federal higher education policy at New America, a think tank. That latitude also means that the COO is somewhat shielded from political whims.
Going forward, if the Biden administration is hoping to follow through with many of its campaign promises to tweak the student-loan system, it will need the cooperation of FSA and its leadership to implement them successfully.
Warren should know what a disaster is - just look at her!!!’
It was the same or worse under Obama-Biden. Why wasn’t that mentioned?