Department Lays Out Options for Charlotte Students

Clare McCann was quoted in Inside Higher Ed on the Obama-era borrower-defense rule:

Clare McCann, a former Obama administration official and the deputy director for federal higher education policy at New America, said the Obama rule changed the standards for a borrower-defense claim and would have allowed Charlotte students to cite the department's findings from its December letter withdrawing access to federal aid programs. The Obama rule also would have provided a clear process for the department to consider claims like those of former Charlotte students with similar circumstances as a group instead of one by one. It's unclear if the department will consider group discharge for those students now -- Obama officials had insisted they did not have the authority to grant group discharges under the existing rule.

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McCann said it was clear that Charlotte sought to remain open to protect its parent company's liability from loan-discharge claims. She said the department should have taken that into account in setting the window for students to qualify for closed-school discharges.

"I just think the window should be extended because they so clearly tried to game the system," she said.