Students Win Legal Action against US Education Department
By Pete Musto
2018-10-20
学生赢得针对美国教育部的法律诉讼
皮特•姆斯特报道 2018年10月20日
Students defrauded by for-profit colleges won an important legal victory on Tuesday.
在周二，被营利性大学欺诈的学生赢得了一场重要的法律诉讼。
A U.S. federal court ruled against a request to delay a policy from former President Barack Obama’s administration. The policy makes it easier for those students to get their student loans forgiven.
美国一家联邦法院否决了一项请求，该请求为了延迟前任总统巴拉克奥巴马的一项政策。对这些学生来说，这项政策让他们免除贷款更容易。
The policy is known as borrower defense, and was originally meant to go into effect in July 2017. But current Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said the rule made forgiving loans too easy and was unfair to taxpayers. So, she blocked it while attempting to create a new policy in its place.
这项政策被认为是为借款人辩护，最初打算在2017年7月生效。但是现任教育部长贝特思•德沃斯说该规则使得免除贷款太容易，并且对纳税人不公平。于是，她阻止了这项政策，同时试图提出一项新政策来代替。
Last month, U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss decided that DeVos' delay was unlawful. This week, he denied a request from an organization representing for-profit colleges to delay the rule even longer.
上个月，美国区域法院法官伦道夫•毛斯裁定德沃斯的延期是不合法的。本周，他拒绝了一个来自营利性大学组织的要求，该要求甚至延迟这项规则更长时间。
Julie Murray is an attorney with Public Citizen. She represents the students in the legal action against the Education Secretary.
朱莉默里是一位公共公民（一家非营利性组织）律师，在这场针对教育部长的法律行动中她代表学生。
“The rule is finally in effect,” Murray told the Associated Press. “No more excuses. No more delays.”
“这规则最终会生效”，默里告诉美联社说，“不再找借口，不再拖延”。
In a statement on Tuesday, Education Department spokeswoman Liz Hill said DeVos “respects the role of the court and accepts the court’s decision.” She added that the department will soon provide information about how the rule will take effect.
在周二的一份声明中，教育部新闻发言人利兹•希尔说德沃斯“尊重法院的职责并接受法院的决定。”她补充说，教育部将很快提供关于如何落实这项规则的信息。
But DeVos continues to consider the rule to be “bad policy” and will continue writing a new rule “that protects both borrowers and taxpayers,” said Hill.
“但是德沃斯仍认为这项规则是‘糟糕的政策’，她还将继续制定一个同时保护借款人和纳税人的新规则，”希尔说。
The court’s decision means the Obama rule on loan forgiveness could be in effect until July 2020. At that point, the new rule written by DeVos will come into effect.
法院的决定意味着，直到2020年，奥巴马有关贷款免除的规则能实际生效。到那时，被德沃斯制定的新规则要开始实施。
Under the Obama rule, students whose school closed mid-program or shortly after completion, will become eligible for immediate loan relief. This will likely help former students of Corinthian Colleges, for example, a company which closed its entire school system overnight in 2015. The U.S. government had found evidence it was defrauding its students. And the following year, several court cases ruled that Corinthian owed millions of dollars to both its debtors and former students.
依据奥巴马规则，那些中途关闭或在学业结束后不久关闭的学校的学生，将成为贷款紧急援助资格人。例如，这很可能会帮到柯林斯学院以前的学生， 2015年一家公司在一夜之间关闭了整个学校系统。美国政府已经发现证据表明这家学校在欺诈学生。
接下来一年里，一些法院案件裁定柯林斯学院欠下债主和之前学生数百万美元。
The Department of Education first created the rule governing borrower defense in 1994. Use of the rule was uncommon, until the Obama administration made changes to it in 2016, following the closing of Corinthian and other for-profit colleges. The application process for student loan relief became clearer and more developed.
在1994年，教育部门第一次发明了借款人保护的管理规则。因为规则的用途罕见，直到随着柯林斯学院和其他营利性大学的关闭，2016年奥巴马政府才更改它。学生申请免除贷款的过程变得更为透明、更为便捷。
The Century Foundation is a policy research organization. Experts with the progressive organization estimate that the court’s decision will affect tens of thousands of students at over 1,400 schools. The students will now be eligible for $400 million in immediate debt relief across the nation.
世纪基金会是一个政策研究组织，这个开明组织的专家估计法院这项裁定将影响超过1400所学校的数万名学生。遍布全国的这些学生现在将有4亿美元即时债务减免的资格。
Other parts of the rule permit students to apply for loan relief as a group. It also prevents schools from forcing students to sign away their rights to take legal action against their program. And it makes sure that the schools have some financial responsibility to help relieve student loan debt if they close. That way it is not entirely taxpayer money covering those costs.
这项规则的其他部分允许学生们作为一个群体减免贷款。规则也阻止学校强迫学生放弃他们针对学校程序而采取的法律行动的权利。
Over 100,000 students say their schools have defrauded them. They are currently waiting for the Education Department to consider their applications for loan forgiveness. James Kvaal is the president of the Institute for College Access and Success. He said the department must immediately stop student debt collections and completely relieve loans of those borrowers whose schools have been shut down.
超过10万名学生说学校欺诈了他们。当前他们正在等待教育部考虑他们的贷款减免申请。詹姆斯•克沃是大学数据和成功学院院长，他说教育部必须立即停止学生债务收集，并且完全减免那些学校已经被关闭的借款人的贷款。
Toby Merrill is the director of the Project on Predatory Student Lending at Harvard University. His organization also took part in the legal action against the Education Department. He said, “This is a major victory for students across this country in the ongoing battle against the Department of Education and the for-profit college industry.”
托比•美林是哈佛大学掠夺学生贷款项目负责人，他所在的组织也参与了针对教育部的法律行动。他说，“对正在进行针对教育部和营利性大学机构战斗的全国学生们来说，这是一个重大胜利。”
But Steve Gunderson described Judge Moss’s decision as “disappointing.” Gunderson is the president of Career Education Colleges and Universities, a group that supports the for-profit college industry.
但是史蒂芬•甘德森用“失望”来描述法官莫斯的决定。甘德森是一个支持营利性学院产业的团体，大学和职业教育学会的主席。
“It will only create further confusion for students and schools,” he said. He also urged the Education Department to provide as much as assistance as possible while it finishes writing the new rule.
“对学生和学校来说，它仅仅将产生更多困惑，”他说。他也敦促教育部提供尽可能多的援助，同时完成新规则的制定。
The California Association of Private Postsecondary Schools is the organization that requested further delays to loan relief policy, in addition to DeVos’s delays. The group did not return a request for comment from the Associated Press.
除了德沃斯的阻碍外，加州私立高等教育学校协会是请求进一步延迟贷款减免政策的组织，该团体没有回复美联社的置评请求。
PS:翻译后记
- 认识少数单词，翻译时借助了Bing词典。
- 英文句子结构紧密，翻译成中文后的句子中“的”、“了”很重要，能表明时态，能表明相互关系。
- 还做不到信息完整、浅显直白，更谈不上高雅简洁。所以和合本圣经真是牛。
- 问题：英文标点符号翻译时转换规则是什么？原文标点完全不动应该不可能。
- 外语和中文两种工具应该都掌握。
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