Published: October 2019

A new bill aimed at helping students lacks robust borrower protections

Consumer Action joined over 40 organizations in a letter to Senator Lamar Alexander to express concerns regarding his recently introduced bill, the Student Aid Improvement Act. Unfortunately, the bill fails to include any provisions that hold low-quality and sometimes predatory colleges accountable, and better protect students and taxpayers. Any reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA) must include robust consumer protections.

The Student Aid Improvement Act fails to include critical borrower and taxpayer protections. Current law allows for students of color, low-income students, and veteran and active-duty military students to be targeted by, and over-represented in low-quality institutions, too many of which are for-profit colleges. This lack of accountability leads to students who cannot afford to repay the debt they take on, leaves students who took out loans based on misrepresentations and lies by institutions without recourse, and creates perverse incentives to target veterans for enrollment in low-quality programs.

Lead Organization

The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS)

Other Organizations

Allied Progress | American Federation of Teachers | Americans for Financial Reform | Association of Young Americans (AYA) | Augustus F. Hawkins Foundation | Center for American Progress | Center for Law and Social Policy | Center for Public Interest Law | Center for Responsible Lending | Children's Advocacy Network | Consumer Action | Consumer Advocacy and Protection Society (CAPS) | Consumer Federation of California | Economic Mobility Pathways (EMPath) | Education Reform Now Advocacy | The Education Trust | Generation Progress | Government Accountability Project | Higher Education Loan Coalition | Hildreth Institute | Housing and Economic Rights Advocates | The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) | Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition | National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity (NAPE) | National Association for College Admission Counseling | National Association of Consumer Advocates | National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys (NACBA) | National Consumers League | National Education Association | New America Higher Education Initiative | New Jersey Citizen Action | PHENOM (Public Higher Education Network of Massachusetts) Project on Predatory Student Lending | Public Citizen | Public Good Law Center | Public Law Center | Service Employees International Union | Student Debt Crisis | UnidosUS | US Public Interest Research Group (USPIRG) | Veterans for Common Sense | Woodstock Institute

More Information

Click here to read the letter in full.

For more information, please visit TICAS.

Download PDF

No Download Available