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Episode 869: The Student Loan Whistleblower

By Cory Turner,
Sarah Gonzalez, Sarah Gonzalez
Published October 12, 2018 at 7:57 PM EDT
Cameron Pollack
/
NPR

As the student loan ombudsman for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Seth Frotman watched as the Department of Education became one of the biggest banks in the country. It has lent out more than a trillion dollars to student borrowers. The problem is, the Department of Education wasn't really built to be a bank.

So, the department called in some backup to help with the paperwork. Now, student loan servicers help the Education Department deal with borrowers.

And normally the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau regulates banks, and servicers, and loans. But there's a new director in town, and he doesn't seem interested in regulating much. And that made Seth Frotman mad enough to quit, and tell all.

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Cory Turner
Cory Turner reports and edits for the NPR Ed team. He's helped lead several of the team's signature reporting projects, including "The Truth About America's Graduation Rate" (2015), the groundbreaking "School Money" series (2016), "Raising Kings: A Year Of Love And Struggle At Ron Brown College Prep" (2017), and the NPR Life Kit parenting podcast with Sesame Workshop (2019). His year-long investigation with NPR's Chris Arnold, "The Trouble With TEACH Grants" (2018), led the U.S. Department of Education to change the rules of a troubled federal grant program that had unfairly hurt thousands of teachers.
See stories by Cory Turner
Sarah Gonzalez
See stories by Sarah Gonzalez
Sarah Gonzalez
Sarah Gonzalez is a host and reporter with Planet Money, NPR's award-winning podcast that finds creative, entertaining ways to make sense of the big, complicated forces that move our economy. She joined the team in April 2018.