Massachusetts Is Suing Betsy DeVos

Photo via AP

We’re suing again.

In Massachusetts and 18 other states, attorneys general are taking Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to court over the Trump administration’s decision to ease up for now on predatory for-profit colleges.

Attorney General Maura Healey is leading this latest round of legal action—the state at her direction has sued the federal government relentlessly since Inauguration—and is not mincing words with the embattled education leader.

“Secretary DeVos has canceled student protections, betrayed her office, and violated federal law,” Healey wrote on Twitter. “With 18 fellow AG’s, I’m suing her.”

Secretary DeVos has canceled student protections, betrayed her office, and violated federal law. With 18 fellow AG’s, I’m suing her. pic.twitter.com/pQR3VLRkQ9

— Maura Healey (@MassAGO) July 6, 2017

Healey also got some support from the state’s most famous social media fire-spitter: Elizabeth Warren. “Betsy DeVos might not like it, but her job is to serve students,” she tweeted. “If she won’t do it, we will force her to do so.”

Betsy DeVos might not like it, but her job is to serve students – & if she won’t do it, we will force her to do so. https://t.co/BZbf8v4dlp

— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) July 6, 2017

The suit comes in response to DeVos’ decision in June to delay implementation of a policy that made it easier for to students sue to have their loans forgiven if they’ve been victimized by for-profit colleges—the ones that prey on unsuspecting, largely low-income aspiring students, luring them with aggressive recruitment tactics and inflated claims about job prospects, then leaving them with huge debts. The new rules crafted by the Obama administration, then frozen by DeVos last month, would also end arbitration agreements schools often make students sign that keep them from suing for fraud. The multi-state effort filed on Thursday seeks to allow those rules, which were supposed to move forward July 1, to take effect.

DeVos has called the new rules “unfair to students and schools,” said they put “taxpayers on the hook for significant costs,” and called for a “regulatory reset” with new rule-making committees.