Group Forms To Challenge Devos’ Rule Rollbacks

WASHINGTON — A group of former Obama education officials on Thursday launched a legal aid organization to challenge the Trump administration’s policies on student lending and civil rights. The National Student Legal Defense Network will partner with state attorneys general and advocacy groups to file lawsuits on behalf of students who were defrauded by for-profit colleges or faced discrimination. Since coming to office, Trump’s education secretary, Betsy DeVos, has halted two key Obama-era regulations aimed at protecting students from fraud and predatory actions by for-profit universities and has frozen review of tens of thousands of student loan discharge applications. Those actions, as well as the Trump administration’s ties to the for-profit sector, have prompted criticism that the Education Department is looking out for industry interests.