DeVos drops plan to overhaul student loan servicing

Source: Politico

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Tuesday abandoned her plan to overhaul how the federal government collects payments from the nation’s more than 42 million student loan borrowers after it faced growing resistance from congressional Republicans and Democrats.

The Trump administration announced that it was scrapping plans to award a massive contract to a single company to manage the monthly payments of all student loan borrowers, and said it would come up with a new proposal aimed at improving customer service for student loan payments.

“By starting afresh and pursuing a truly modern loan servicing environment, we have a chance to turn what was a good plan into a great one,” DeVos said in a statement.

DeVos had pitched her initial loan servicing plan in April as an effort to simplify a complicated student loan system and save money for taxpayers. She said that hiring a single servicer would make it easier for the Education Department to hold that company accountable.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/01/devos-student-loans-241221