Published: September 2017

Secretary DeVos called on to protect student loan borrowers of color

Consumer Action joined the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition of more than 200 national advocate organizations, in sending a letter to U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, expressing strong concerns about the Department of Education’s recent changes to student loan servicing, debt collection, and higher education regulations and their impact on Black and Latino borrowers. These actions are inconsistent with the Department of Education’s responsibility to advance higher education and serve the interests of all students, including students of color.

As it stands, the student loan servicing industry is too often failing borrowers of color. Default and delinquency can ruin a person’s credit score and damage their credit profile, affecting their ability to acquire other wealth-building lines of credit like a mortgage or auto loan. Remedies are long overdue to address the barriers that students, especially students of color, face in achieving on-time repayment of student loans. Unfortunately, the changes recently announced by the Department of Education would exacerbate inequalities, making the already unfair and ineffective student loan servicing system even more harmful to all students and families seeking higher education.

Lead Organization

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

Other Organizations

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights | UnidosUS | American Association of University Women (AAUW) | American Civil Liberties Union | American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) | American Federation of Teachers | American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee | Augustus F. Hawkins Foundation | Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) | Center for Responsible Lending | Consumer Action | Consumer Federation of America | Demos | Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund | Equal Justice Works | Generation Progress | Higher Ed, Not Debt | Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) | Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law | League of United Latin American Citizens | Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition | NAACP | The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. | National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity (NAPE) | The National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE) | National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys (NACBA) | National Consumer Law Center (on behalf of its low-income clients) | National Urban League | National Women's Law Center | New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG) | One Wisconsin Now | People For the American Way | PHENOM (Public Higher Education Network of Massachusetts) | Progress Virginia Education Fund | Public Citizen | Southeast Asia Resource Action Center | Student Debt Crisis | TASH | Young Invincibles

More Information

For more information, please visit The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights' website.

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Secretary DeVos called on to protect student loan borrowers of color   (StudentLoanServicing091917SIGNERS.pdf)