The Buzz: Bad Week

Managing student loans just got worse for students who attended now-defunct Heald College in Salinas. On July 31, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos proposed a $12.7 billion rollback in debt relief for defrauded students. It would affect former attendees of for-profit colleges (ironically, that includes former students of President Donald Trump's now-defunct Trump University.) Locally, it would affect those who attended schools run byCorinthian Colleges, Heald's parent company, which folded in 2015, shutting down 28 campuses and displacing more than 15,000 students. Annual tuition at Heald was $13,620. U.S. Rep. Jimmy Panetta, D-Carmel Valley, criticized the move. In a letter to DeVos, he wrote: "[The proposal] shortchanges students to benefit corporations with a history of fraud and abuse." The public comment deadline is Aug. 30.