A spokesman from Temple confirms that it is school policy to withhold official transcripts from graduates who are in default on their student loans. As it turns out, the school is not alone; this is the position taken by most colleges and universities, though there is no law requiring such an extortionate position. They do this despite the fact the colleges themselves are not out the money. They have received the students’ tuition payments in full and are in effect simply acting as collection agencies for the federal government.
The US Department of Education says only that it ” encourages” colleges to withhold transcripts, a tactic which the department, in a letter to colleges, claims coldly ” has resulted in numerous loan repayments.” But particularly in a time when the real unemployment rate is stuck at over 15 percent, or, if long term unemployed who have given up looking for work are included, at 22 percent, it seems not just heartless, but counter-productive for schools to block their own graduates from obtaining a document they need to move on to a higher degree or to get hired in their chosen field.
If lawyers are not allowed to hold client files hostage for payment of fees, the same principle can be extended to transcripts being held for payment of fees.
Could an action be brought for tortuous interference with employment?
This is a particularly ill-thought-out form of abuse of the people. This is abuse targeted at military-age, unemployed / underemployed, well-educated people. What demographics are most likely, historically, to start populist revolutions? I’ll wait while you research it?
I have not checked in here for some time because I thought it was getting boring, but the last several posts are good quality so I guess I’ll add you back to my everyday bloglist. You deserve it my friend 🙂