Secretary of EducationBetsy DeVoswas held in contempt of court on Thursday for violating a previous order to stop collecting on loans from students who attended the now-defunct Corinthian College. The Education Department was also given a $100,000 fine.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Sallie Kim found that DeVos and others in her department only showed “minimal effort” to comply with a preliminary injunction she issued in May of last year ordering the Education Department to stop collecting on the loans,according toPolitico.
The outletreported earlier this monththat Kim said in a hearing that she was “extremely disturbed” and “really astounded” that DeVos continued to collect on the student loans even though she was ordered to stop.
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“There is no question that the defendants violated the preliminary injunction. There is also no question that defendants’ violations harmed individual borrowers,” Kim said in her ruling on Thursday, according to thePost.
“Defendants have not provided evidence that they were unable to comply with the preliminary injunction, and the evidence shows only minimal efforts to comply,” she continued.
A rep for DeVos did not immediately reply to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
Chief Operating Officer of Federal Student Aid Mark Brown said in a video shared on the Education Department’s Twitter that the 16,000 people were “mistakenly billed.”
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“Although these actions were not done with ill intent, students and parents were affected, and we take full responsibility,” he said in the video.
“We’re disappointed in the court’s ruling. We acknowledged that servicers made unacceptable mistakes,”the tweet said. “@BetsyDeVosED directed @FAFSA to take immediate action to help every impacted borrower. As of today, @FAFSA has taken the actions needed to make every impacted borrower whole.”
source: people.com
