A whistleblower has filed a complaint saying the Department of Education rejected a website that eased the process of applying for student loan forgiveness, reported U.S. News.
Diane Auer JonesA spokeswoman for the Education Department refuted the whistleblower’s contention.
Late in May, President Donald Trump vetoed a resolution that would have made it easier for students defrauded by for-profit schools to get their student loans erased. The website was scheduled to go live July 1, when the new borrower defense rule, upheld by Trump’s veto, is set to go into effect. The new rule makes it harder for student borrowers to prove the colleges they enrolled in defrauded them.
The problem for the department, though, arose in late February, said the whistleblower, a department official involved in developing the website. At the time, Diane Auer Jones, principal deputy undersecretary at the department, had met with the team developing the website and resisted the features that made it more user friendly. That’s when the whistleblower filed the first complaint with the Office of Inspector General.
Two week ago, Jones reportedly told the Federal Student Aid team that it could not launch the website and that’s when the whistleblower filed the second complaint.
“Diane doesn’t want more people applying for it [loan forgiveness],” the whistleblower said.
