Comment on FR Doc # 2013-11287

RE: Docket ID ED-2012-OPE-0008 Student lending is a crisis to this country. I have $300,000 in student loan debt, and have NO HOPE of repayment. Please strengthen rules to protect students and taxpayers! 1. Ensure a strong gainful employment rule to prevent career education programs receiving federal funds from consistently leaving students with debts they cannot repay. Recent data, research, and federal and state investigations have provided even more evidence of fraudulent conduct, sky high tuitions, and bad student outcomes, reinforcing the urgent need for a strong rule. For example, the NBLR has estimated that over the next seven (7) years, laws schools will graduate 308,000 unnecessary attorneys with an average debt of $125,000 into a legal market that is contracting by 4%. It is essential that the rule end funding of federal loans for the worst programs & require poorly performing programs to improve to keep receiving federal funds. 2. Prevent schools from evading other laws designed to protect students and taxpayers, such as the laws barring funding to schools that have high student loan default rates or receive more than 90% of their revenue from federal student aid. 3. Provide relief for students who are deceived or defrauded by universities and law schools. For example, relief should be available if a career education program lacks the type of accreditation required for its students to work in the field they're preparing for, or it fails to provide adequate preparation for the jobs in the industry. In these and other circumstances, the relevant student loans should be discharged. Student loans should also be dischargeable in bankruptcy after 20 years. 4. Students & taxpayers cannot afford to wait for protection from waste, fraud, & abuse. For example, law schools are devising ways to increase graduation rates and income (ie excelerated programs) to maintain their income despite labor figures that demand the closure of nearly half the schools in the US.