On July 15, 22 states sued the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) for changes made to student loan anti-fraud rules and related rules for for-profit colleges. The new DOE rules make it harder for borrowers to qualify for loan forgiveness when students assert they were defrauded.
The 22 states include California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin.
I just compared the average ranking of those 22 states to the average ranking of the rest of the 50 states on five variables of interest that we maintain on Truth in Accounting’s “Data-Z” database. There are significant differences between those 22 states and the rest of the states on each of these variables.
Ranked from the least significant difference (at the top of the list) to the most significant difference (at the bottom of the list), those five variables are:
Those 22 states suing DOE tend to have higher student debt than the other states.
Those 22 states suing DOE tend to have state governments in worse financial shape.
Those 22 states suing DOE tend to have more lawyers per capita.
Public Sector Workers Covered by Collective Bargaining Agreements
Those 22 states suing DOE tend to have a higher share of unionized public workers.
U.S. House Election Vote Percentage (Dem.)
In the most significant difference, those 22 states suing DOE tend to vote Democratic.