State and federal authorities were already investigating and suing the for-profit chain Corinthian Colleges for fraud, deceptive marketing, and steering students into predatory loans when the Education Department cut off its access to federal student aid for lying about its graduation and job placement rates. Corinthian promptly folded.

Under a federal regulation known as the “borrower defense rule” or “borrower defense to repayment,” the Department of Education typically discharges federal student loans when a college uses illegal tactics to persuade students to borrow money. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, however, had a problem with this rule: “All one had to do was raise his or her hands to be entitled to so-called free money.” So she ordered the Department to find out how much the defrauded students were earning now--by sharing their private data with the Social Security Administration--and to collect on their student loans anyway if she felt they were making enough money:

“She said applicants would receive full loan forgiveness if their earnings are less than 50 percent of those of their peers. If their pay is at or above that threshold, the department would provide relief on a sliding scale.”

(In case you’ve forgotten, the Department of Education previously awarded the right to collect past-due student debts to an underqualified firm that owes a lot of money to a company in which the DeVos family has a substantial financial interest. Pure coincidence, of course.)