Sweet v. WWE Showdown
Help get our team to the hearing!
Travel is expensive! If you cannot attend in person please consider donating a few dollars to offset travel costs for our core team to attend this hearing in person!
Two ways to contribute to the fund. Venmo our team lead, Valerie Scott or through our Substack (coming soon)
OUR CORE MEMBERS ATTENDING
Dr. Valerie Scott
Valerie attended Argosy University on the promise that it would not cost more than a state school. Fueled by her anger at being taken advantage of by people in a position of trust, she has become a staunch advocate for student debt cancellation. She co-authored an extensive report of Argosy University’s wrongdoing which was widely disseminated throughout Congress and the Department of Education. She has worked with teams from Senators Tina Smith, Dick Durbin, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey’s offices to argue for debt relief from the Department of Education for students victimized by the for-profit college industry.
Dr. Rachael Sytsma-Ramos
Rachael was the first person in her family to finish college and attend graduate school at Argosy University. She was promised that her income potential upon graduation would easily be able to pay back student loans. As a federal work-study student and later an adjunct professor at Argosy University, she experienced firsthand how the school intentionally defrauded students and the federal government. She has become a staunch advocate for student debt cancellation. Through her volunteer efforts with Borrower Offense, Rachael has participated in several actions to encourage Congress to take Borrower Defense seriously and protect students from predatory student loan policies.
Dr. Laura Strong
Laura was the first in her family to attend graduate school and was hopeful as she started her doctoral program at Argosy University. She never knew that colleges would prey on individuals for their federal funds by telling lies and committing fraud. She fought hard to complete her degree, but watched numerous peers around her drop out of the program with thousands of dollars of debt and no degree. Only years later, after Argosy was forced to close its doors for fraud, did she learn just how deceitful and predatory their parent company EDMC had been. She now speaks out publicly about the fraud that was committed in an attempt to save others from the same injustice.
BACKGROUND ON Sweet v. McMahon
Borrower Defense to Repayment (BD) is a federal loan forgiveness program that cancels federal student loans for borrowers whose schools misled them or engaged in misconduct such as false advertising or inflated job placement rates. The program, mostly hidden deep in the higher education act, was discovered by and circulated by the Debt Collective in 2014 during the height of the Corinthian College collapse.
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) is currently reviewing over 450,000 pending BD applications, along with evidence involving several predatory institutions.
In 2019, the Project on Predatory Student Lending (PPSL) sued ED for refusing to process thousands of applications. A 2022 settlement under the Biden administration created three groups:
- Full Class: Automatic loan cancellation for about 200,000 borrower applicants who attended one of 150 predatory schools prior to the settlement.
- Decision Class: Borrowers from unlisted schools whose applications must be decided by August 2025 or canceled automatically.
- Post Class: Approximately 250,000 borrowers who applied between June 22 and November 16, 2022. ED must resolve these by January 28, 2026, or cancel them.
On November 6 2025, ED asked Judge Alsup for an 18-month delay beyond the current January 28th, 2026 deadline in Sweet v. McMahon, citing staff shortages. These shortages have existed prior to the Biden administration taking office. The Biden era ED asked for more resources that were not granted and to make matters worse, Trump caused mass layoffs to the department.Over 200,000 post-class applications remain unprocessed. This contributes to $12 Billion dollars in cancellation and is made of roughly eighty percent of schools with substantial evidence of fraud/misconduct at the ED.
Read PPSL’s Statement on the delay.
Judge Alsup has indicated plans to retire soon, raising fears that a delay could hand the case to a Trump-appointed judge. Trump has stacked his cabinet with for-profit college profiters in both terms. The ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ language around guardrails and justice for defrauded borrowers favors the industry, not the people it has harmed.
The administration has recently pushed to dismantle the Department of Education. This leaves great concern for the 200k+ borrower applications who do not have legal protections from current lawsuits.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has said that excessive delays can constitute unfair denials of service. From this perspective, delays of years should certainly qualify as unfair and abusive. Years-long inaction by ED or state Attorneys General is deeply negligent.
These borrowers were defrauded twice — first by their schools, and second by the government agencies meant to protect them. They deserve better.
You can help.
Judge Alsup has noted the importance of participation at hearings throughout the six years he has presided over this lawsuit. Every three month status hearing, which is available on zoom, he asks for the zoom participation count and speaks directly to them noting he values their participation. During the early days, hearings were held on zoom (October 2020). Participants maxed out zoom caps during the original settlement fairness hearing after DeVos rubber stamp DENIED 90% of the applications. The chat option was open, allowing borrowers to share their stories, anger towards the denials, and evidence they were defrauded. This ended up becoming evidence in the case and catalysis of the original settlement being tossed and call for discovery filed.
At the 2022 settlement hearing, borrowers showed up to fill the courtroom. The judge addressed them directly stating he strongly valued their participation and showing in force. This is our way of showing the judge the borrowers have an active role in the outcome. It humanized the process.
If you live in the San Francisco Bay area and can attend in person, please do! We know this is a big ask for early morning, but it could mean a huge win for student loan cancellation for defrauded borrowers. Let’s fill every seat.
If you can’t make it in person, please consider donating to our core team that wants to attend.
WHEN: Thursday December 11th, 2025 at 7am (hearing starts at 8)
Please note, this date and time are subject to change. Please check Judge Alsup’s schedule for the most up to date information.
WHERE: Phillip Burton Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse 450 Golden Gate Avenue San Francisco, CA 94102
IF ATTENDING IN PERSON WHAT DO YOU NEED ME TO DO?
If attending in person, meet Borrower Defense organizers at the courthouse. At 7am, we will enter as a group and sit through the hearing. We are expecting the hearing to end by noon, if not sooner.
If you are a Post Class member, we would love to interview you or put you in touch with someone from the press to share your story. You will need an up to date ID to enter the courthouse.
Please fill out this form so we can relay important information, and plan together.
Donate today to help ValErie, Rachael, Laura, and other members of Borrower Offense attend the December hearing and amplify student borrowers’ voices!
Sending Student Borrowers to the hearing takes time, energy, and money. It is important to show the Department of Education that we will not back down and need to be taken seriously.