美国国家公共电台 NPR Betsy DeVos Overruled Education Department Findings On Defrauded Students

Betsy DeVos Overruled Education Department Findings On Defrauded¹ Students

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Two hundred thousand American students now know that officials in the U.S. Education Department were on their side. They took out student loans. They said for-profit colleges fleeced them. They would like their loans forgiven. And internal Education Department documents obtained by NPR argue that the loans should have been forgiven. So why did the education secretary say no?

NPR's Cory Turner got his hands on those documents. He's in our studios. Good morning.

CORY TURNER, BYLINE²: Good morning, Steve.

INSKEEP: What's this fight about?

TURNER: So you'll remember a few years ago, during the Obama administration, a handful of big, high-profile, for-profit colleges essentially³ collapsed⁴...

INSKEEP: Right.

TURNER: Corinthian Colleges, ITT Tech were two big names. And this left hundreds of thousands of borrowers with big debts and degrees that they say are basically worthless. So the students started protesting, saying they deserve to have their debts erased⁵. And you have to remember, because we're talking about federal student loans, the decision of what to do about those loans is really up to the U.S. Department of Education.

So ultimately, the Obama administration urged these students to file claims under an old rule known as borrower defense⁶, which basically says if you think you were defrauded, state your case and maybe you'll get your money back.

INSKEEP: You obtained documents then saying what Education Department officials thought of those requests for forgiveness.

TURNER: That's exactly right. So in early 2017 - this is just a few weeks, really, before Betsy DeVos is sworn in as secretary - a bunch of career staff at the department write these memos⁷ after reviewing thousands of these borrower defense claims. And they basically say, yeah, Corinthian and ITT schools misled borrowers, making promises about things like job prospects⁸ after graduation and the transferability of credits that just weren't true.

And so these department staff say in these memos, we agree with these students. The value of an education from these schools is, quote, "either negligible or nonexistent." So the memos even quote defrauded borrowers. One of them says, I cannot find a job using my degree. People just laugh in my face.

INSKEEP: Wow.

TURNER: So these memos officially recommend to the department a sweeping⁹ approach to relief. All of these borrowers, they say, deserve to have their debts wiped out.

INSKEEP: I guess we got to take that present tense and put it in the past tense. You said these memos recommend. These memos recommended almost three years ago that these loans be forgiven. What happened?

TURNER: They did. And this fight has been playing out ever since because Secretary DeVos comes in and, over the course of the past three years, has made it clear she does not like this full-relief approach to borrower defense. She has called it easy money. And so instead - in fact, just yesterday, she unveiled a new approach to grant students, essentially, partial relief.

Her reasoning is even if students were lied to, what the department still doesn't dispute, if they're working now and earning a respectable living, why should they get the money back? That's what the department now argues. In a statement to NPR, a department spokesperson said, quote, "full relief sounds nice. To force taxpayers¹⁰ to provide blanket forgiveness, though, would be abandoning our duty to be good stewards¹¹ of tax dollars."

The department, they say, will provide student loan relief to those who qualify. And we should say, you know, this fight is going to play out on a very big stage tomorrow. DeVos is scheduled to testify before the House Education Committee.

INSKEEP: We'll be listening. Cory, thanks so much.

TURNER: Thanks, Steve.

INSKEEP: That's NPR's Cory Turner.

1 defrauded   

v.诈取，骗取( defraud的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He defrauded his employers of thousands of dollars. 他诈取了他的雇主一大笔钱。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He defrauded them of their money. 他骗走了他们的钱。 来自辞典例句

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

4 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

5 erased   

v.擦掉( erase的过去式和过去分词 )；抹去；清除

参考例句：

• He erased the wrong answer and wrote in the right one. 他擦去了错误答案，写上了正确答案。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He removed the dogmatism from politics; he erased the party line. 他根除了政治中的教条主义，消除了政党界限。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

7 memos   

n.备忘录( memo的名词复数 )；（美）内部通知

参考例句：

• Big shots get their dander up and memos start flying. 大人物们怒火中烧，备忘录四下乱飞。 来自辞典例句
• There was a pile of mail, memos and telephone messages on his desk. 他的办公桌上堆满着信件、备忘录和电话通知。 来自辞典例句

8 prospects   

n.希望，前途(恒为复数)

参考例句：

• There is a mood of pessimism in the company about future job prospects. 公司中有一种对工作前景悲观的情绪。
• They are less sanguine about the company's long-term prospects. 他们对公司的远景不那么乐观。

9 sweeping   

adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的

参考例句：

• The citizens voted for sweeping reforms.公民投票支持全面的改革。
• Can you hear the wind sweeping through the branches?你能听到风掠过树枝的声音吗？

10 taxpayers   

纳税人，纳税的机构( taxpayer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Finance for education comes from taxpayers. 教育经费来自纳税人。
• She was declaiming against the waste of the taxpayers' money. 她慷慨陈词猛烈抨击对纳税人金钱的浪费。

11 stewards   

（轮船、飞机等的）乘务员( steward的名词复数 )； （俱乐部、旅馆、工会等的）管理员； （大型活动的）组织者； （私人家中的）管家

参考例句：

• The stewards all wore armbands. 乘务员都戴了臂章。
• The stewards will inspect the course to see if racing is possible. 那些干事将检视赛马场看是否适宜比赛。