{"id":2572,"date":"2025-11-03T15:54:03","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T16:54:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thetoptenwebhosts.com\/?p=2572"},"modified":"2025-11-04T13:46:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T13:46:13","slug":"blue-states-groups-sue-education-department-over-public-service-loan-forgiveness-rule-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thetoptenwebhosts.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/03\/blue-states-groups-sue-education-department-over-public-service-loan-forgiveness-rule-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue states, groups sue Education Department over Public Service Loan Forgiveness rule change"},"content":{"rendered":"

The attorneys general of 21 Democratic states and Washington, D.C., as well as a pair of advocacy groups, sued the Education Department on Monday over a recent\u00a0rule\u00a0change<\/a> to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) student debt relief program.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Trump administration\u00a0finalized\u00a0a rule change last week that said those who are engaged in what it called \u201cunlawful activities\u201d\u00a0won\u2019t\u00a0qualify for student debt relief under the PSLF program, which allows government workers or nonprofit employees to receive forgiveness after 10 years of payments.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The administration defined \u201cunlawful activities\u201d as groups\u00a0\u201cabetting\u00a0illegal immigration\u201d or supporting gender transition for minors.\u00a0The change is to go into effect next July.<\/p>\n

The coalition of states is arguing the rule is unlawful and will be used to target President Trump\u2019s political opponents.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPublic Service Loan Forgiveness was created as a promise to teachers, nurses,\u00a0firefighters, and social workers that their service to our communities would be honored,\u201d New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead, this administration has created a political\u00a0loyalty test disguised as a regulation. It is unjust and unlawful to cut off loan forgiveness\u00a0for hardworking Americans based on ideology. I will not let our federal government\u00a0punish New York\u2019s public servants for doing their jobs or standing up for our values,\u201d James added.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The states worry the rule will be used against \u201cteachers in states with inclusive curricula, health professionals\u00a0providing gender-affirming care, or legal aid attorneys\u00a0representing\u00a0immigrants, could\u00a0suddenly lose PSLF eligibility through no fault of their own.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The group suing is made up of New York, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland,\u00a0Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon,\u00a0Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington,\u00a0Wisconsin\u00a0and the District of Columbia.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It is unconscionable that the plaintiffs are standing up for criminal activity,” Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent said in a statement. “This is a commonsense reform that will stop taxpayer dollars from subsidizing organizations involved in terrorism, child trafficking, and transgender procedures that are doing irreversible harm to children.”<\/p>\n

“The final rule is crystal clear: the Department will enforce it neutrally, without consideration of the employer\u2019s mission, ideology, or the population they serve,” Kent added. <\/p>\n

Another lawsuit against the PSLF change, led by Protect Borrowers and Democracy Forward, was also filed Monday, with other cities, two of the largest teachers’ unions in the country and advocacy groups joining the legal challenge.<\/p>\n

Their lawsuit says the rule change is a “blatant violation of the Higher Education Act” and is asking a judge to strike it down. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis administration has, yet again, unlawfully targeted people who work in the public interest. And so we again are in court,\u201d said Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward. \u201cPolitically motivated retaliation, like what the administration has done here, should have no place in America. We are honored to represent this powerful coalition in defense of the people\u2019s rights.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The attorneys general of 21 Democratic states and Washington, D.C., as well as a pair…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2574,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thetoptenwebhosts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2572"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thetoptenwebhosts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thetoptenwebhosts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thetoptenwebhosts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thetoptenwebhosts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2572"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/thetoptenwebhosts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2573,"href":"http:\/\/thetoptenwebhosts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2572\/revisions\/2573"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thetoptenwebhosts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thetoptenwebhosts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thetoptenwebhosts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thetoptenwebhosts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}