Stop me if you've heard this one before: a group of states is suing the Trump regime for arbitrarily reversing finalized regulations.
A group of 18 states has filed a lawsuit against the Department of Education and secretary Betsy DeVos for canceling the implementation of borrower defense for college students who were scammed by for-profit colleges that collapsed.
The rules, known as borrower defense, were finalized in October by the Obama administration after years of negotiation and review, and they had been scheduled to take effect on July 1. But after President Trump took office, Ms. DeVos paused the planned changes, citing a federal lawsuit filed in May by an association of for-profit colleges in California that sought to block the rules. [...]
In their lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Washington, the states called the agency’s rationale for the delay — the California lawsuit — a “mere pretext” for repealing and replacing rules that had already been finalized. The states are seeking to have the rules restored.
A spokesperson for the department says DeVos "decided it was time to take a step back and hit pause on these regulations" after she identified "substantive and procedural flaws" in the rules.
Betsy DeVos was completely unable to answer basic questions about educational standards during her congressional confirmation hearing, so the idea that she personally identified "substantive and procedural flaws" in the rules drafted by the Obama administration is suspect at best. I would not trust DeVos to follow a recipe for potato salad.
A department spokesman also said the state lawsuit is "ideological," but states have a real financial interest in the matter. The cost of cleaning up after a for-profit college collapses in their state falls on them.