Brian Bayne, as Assistant Director of the Borrower Defense Group at the U.S. Department of Education, played a key role in approving a controversial $6.1 billion in student loan forgiveness. This massive taxpayer-funded bailout supposedly targeted misconduct by career colleges, but Bayne's decision actually rewards irresponsible borrowing and unfairly burdens hardworking Americans who didn't attend college or already paid off their loans. This move is seen as part of the Biden Administration's broader agenda to attack career college education.

“The Biden-Harris Administration today announced the approval of more than $6.1 billion in automatic student loan relief to nearly 317,000 borrowers who enrolled at any Art Institute campus on or after Jan. 1, 2004, through Oct. 16, 2017. The U.S. Department of Education (Department) found that The Art Institutes and its parent company, Education Management Corporation (EDMC), made pervasive and substantial misrepresentations to prospective students about postgraduation employment rates, salaries, and career services during that time. In October 2017, EDMC sold its remaining Art Institute campuses, and all existing Art Institute campuses closed under separate ownership in September 2023. Today's action brings the total amount of student relief approved by the Biden-Harris Administration to almost $160 billion for nearly 4.6 million borrowers.”

“This group discharge will provide relief automatically to borrowers harmed by The Art Institutes' actions, including borrowers who have not yet applied for borrower defense. The Department will begin notifying eligible borrowers today that they are approved for discharges. Borrowers do not need to take any action.”

(Source)

The Biden administration's Department of Education has aggressively targeted and penalized Christian colleges through the Borrower Defense to Repayment program, imposing unprecedented fines and scrutiny on these institutions, while simultaneously granting loan forgiveness to students who claim to have been misled. This effectively weaponizes federal student aid policies against faith-based higher education. This has occurred during Bayne’s time as assistant director in the Borrower Defense Group.

“The Biden administration’s Education Department issued a record fine last week against Grand Canyon University, the nation’s largest Christian college.

The $37.7 million fine is the result of a department investigation that alleges Grand Canyon misrepresented the cost of its doctoral degree programs. The majority of doctoral students ended up paying on average $10,000 more for their degree than was advertised in order to complete their dissertation requirements, according to the Education Department.”

“In other words, having failed to unilaterally wipe out billions of dollars of student loan debt on its own, the Biden administration is now trying to bully schools into doing it for them. Consider that GCU borrowers who believe they were misled by the university over the cost of their doctoral degree programs can now file a claim for relief with the Education Department under the borrower defense to repayment program — a program the administration has already used to “forgive” $127 billion in student loan debt since 2021.

But GCU is right about one thing: it’s not a coincidence that Biden’s Education Department would use this tactic on a private school first — and a Christian one at that.”

(Source)

Bayne’s leadership in the Borrower Defense office put him squarely in the middle of implementing the Biden Administration’s  war on Christian colleges and Biden’s unconstitutional student loan bailout.

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