It’s almost 2020, and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is still hellbent on keeping student borrowers in debt.
Earlier in December, DeVos gave the keynote presentation at the annual Federal Student Aid Training Conference in Reno, Nevada. Addressing financial aid professionals, she laid out her agenda for a future in which American students are “responsible consumers of education” and “free to learn” – but not with the right to a debt-free education.
The news cycle following the speech focused primarily on DeVos’ idea to separate the office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) from the Department of Education (ED), and the implications that would have for student debt cancellation.
However, FSA can't be separated from ED without cooperation from Congress, an unlikely possibility before 2021. On the other hand, DeVos currently has the power to effectively cancel student debt without approval from Congress – but chooses not to.
In their haste to report DeVos' unfeasible plan, the major stories neglected to analyse or even mention the most important and sinister aspects of the speech: this latest expression of DeVos' agenda to privatize all that is public on behalf of the ruling class, and the “NextGen” FSA initiative, a new technocratic approach to communicating with federal financial aid “customers” – i.e. students and their families.
