The Internet Is Probably Telling You That Filing A Specific Privacy Complaint Can Wipe Out Your Student Loans. Here's What You Need To Know

Yahoo

15-02-2025

If you have federal student loans and aren't a fan of President — oops, I mean "First Buddy" — Elon Musk and the DOGE bros potentially accessing your personal data, chances are you're seeing a lot of posts like this on social media:
All over the internet, and especially on TikTok, people are advising student loan borrowers to file FERPA complaints to get their debts cleared. But since TikTok trends and accurate legal and financial advice don't often go hand in hand, I had to learn more about what's really going on here.
In a nutshell, the argument goes that Elon Musk and DOGE accessed student loan borrower information without our consent, so people claim that we have the right under FERPA to file a complaint and get our loans wiped away.
Separately, the University of California Students Association filed a federal suit to block DOGE from accessing student financial aid data, citing the Privacy Act of 1974. A judge has paused DOGE's access to this data, but the hold is set to end on Monday.
Democratic senators have also begun to take some action around this. Last week, 16 senators headed up by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer started a probe into DOGE's access to student loan data.
So, does this viral student loan discharge theory hold water? Thankfully, there is someone on TikTok who has the expertise to clear things up. Jay Fleischman (@moneywiselawyer), a lawyer with 25 years of experience in consumer law, is going viral for sharing why he thinks these FERPA complaints won't have the desired effect. In a video that's been viewed over 2 million times as of this writing, he starts by explaining what FERPA even is.
"FERPA is short for the Federal Education Rights and Privacy Act, which prevents your student information from being disclosed to third parties," Fleischman says. However, he goes on to explain that "There is no private right of action, no right for an individual to sue for violations of FERPA. The US Supreme Court actually decided the case in 2002 in a case called Gonzaga v. Doe. In that case, the US Supreme Court ruled that individuals do not have the right to sue for a violation of FERPA."
You can read the Department of Education's page on FERPA here.
He concludes the video by saying, "So if you're going to file a lawsuit for violations of FERPA, you're not going anywhere. You're going to waste your time, you're going to waste your money, you're going to get thrown out of court because there's no private right of action, no right for an individual to sue for a violation of FERPA."
A lot of commenters were (understandably) like, well, then, what the heck is FERPA even good for?!? So Fleischman made a follow-up video explaining exactly that. "In the case of FERPA, the right to sue for violations and the right to take enforcement actions for violations of FERPA falls to the federal government. So it would be the US Department of Education that would seek to enforce FERPA against an individual or party that violates it, or it would be the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that would seek to enforce FERPA against people who violate it."
If you've been paying attention to the news in the last few weeks, you unfortunately know where this is going. He concludes by saying, "Well, with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau basically shuttered, and with the Department of Education being rapidly downsized on the way to the administration trying to shutter it, there's not going to be anybody to enforce your rights. Your consumer protection rights under FERPA do not exist in the absence of a government that is ready, willing, and able to enforce those rights on your behalf."
Next, to learn more about what borrowers should actually do right now, I spoke with Natalia Abrams, President and Founder, and Sabrina Calazans, Executive Director, at the Student Debt Crisis Center.
The Student Debt Crisis Center is a nonprofit that highlights borrowers' stories and educates borrowers about their options and rights while advocating for the ultimate goal of canceling student debt and ending the student debt crisis.
First of all, they agreed that a FERPA complaint is not likely to get rid of your student loans. Abrams said, "We've never seen a claim where there has been debt relief or individualized relief from a FERPA claim." She also pointed me to a recent tweet from the Office of Federal Student Aid assuring borrowers that their data has not been accessed unlawfully.
You can read the Student Aid privacy policy, which, as of this writing, was last updated on February 12, 2025, here.
Calazans chimed in, saying, "There's a lot of misinformation spreading right now about everything related to the Department of Education. What happens if the Department of Education is dismantled or abolished? What happens to my debt? It does not go away, to our understanding. It just will pass on to either the Department of Treasury or maybe private lenders."
So, what should borrowers do right now? Abrams says that the main thing is to keep on top of payments. "We don't want people to miss a lot of payments, thinking that [their debt] is gone and then end up in a worse situation. As much as we want to find that holy grail that cancels all of the debt — we've long fought for that, and we got very close under the last administration — smarter folks than us in terms of attorney groups are looking into every angle they can to pull those levers."
Abrams went on to say, "If you're struggling to make your payment, there are what's called income-driven repayment programs that base your payment on your income versus the overall loan amount that can help people that are struggling to make their payment right now."
In 2023, the Biden administration introduced a new income-driven plan called the SAVE plan that set certain lower-income borrowers up for $0 monthly payments with no interest accruing. However, that plan has since been tied up in the courts with millions of borrowers still waiting to find out what will happen.
Abrams explained, "You can still technically enroll in the SAVE program and then be included in that forbearance. I'd caution a bit, because that could take up to two months, and we don't know where the status will be of the lawsuits in two months." Calazans added that, as of now, enrolling in the SAVE program also halts progress in plans like public service student loan forgiveness, so for that reason, they recommend sticking to other income-driven plans.
Calazans added another crucial step for borrowers to take right now. "We've also been encouraging folks to document any information that they have regarding their accounts. So they should log into studentaid.gov, and they should document what repayment plan they're in, their servicer, and their balance. All of that information is really critical so that you know where things stand. We don't know if the website's going to be pulled down. We don't know what they're going to take off of the website. So, it is important for folks to have that information."
Finally, Abrams said, "More chaos is not the answer for student loan borrowers that have been in chaotic times for years now ever since people thought their debt was going to be canceled, and then that was held up in the courts — and then this new SAVE plan and that was held up in the court. Borrowers need clarity and to be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. And that's really hard when there's so many unknowns."
The Student Debt Crisis Center has authored a letter on Action Network that you can use to urge your representatives in Congress to stand with student loan borrowers and defend the Department of Education.
Do you have federal student loans, and what do you think about this whole situation? Tell us your thoughts in the comments.