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Top U.S. Student Loan Official Quits, Calling for Massive Debt Forgiveness

HeadlineOct 25, 2019

The Trump administration’s top student loan official said Thursday he will resign his position at the Education Department and will work for the cancellation of nearly $1 trillion in federally administered student loan debt. A. Wayne Johnson says he’ll promote a plan that would forgive up to $50,000 for anyone with federal student loans, worth about $925 billion. He told The Wall Street Journal, “We run through the process of putting this debt burden on somebody … but it rides on their credit files — it rides on their back — for decades. The time has come for us to end and stop the insanity.” His high-profile resignation came as a federal judge on Thursday held Education Secretary Betsy DeVos in contempt of court for violating an order to stop collecting student debt for people who were defrauded by the for-profit chain Corinthian Colleges. The court ruled DeVos ignored the rights of more than 60,000 former students who were granted relief from the federal government after Corinthian Colleges collapsed in 2014 amid government scrutiny of its fraud and predatory lending. Under Thursday’s contempt-of-court ruling, DeVos will face no jail time, and her Education Department will be fined $100,000.

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