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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (May 24, 2017)
Page 2 The Skanner May 24, 2017 Challenging People to Shape a Better Future Now Bernie Foster Founder/Publisher Bobbie Dore Foster Executive Editor Jerry Foster Advertising Manager Christen McCurdy News Editor Patricia Irvin Graphic Designer Melanie Sevcenko Reporter Monica J. Foster Seattle Office Coordinator Susan Fried Photographer 2016 MERIT AWARD WINNER The Skanner Newspaper, es- tablished in October 1975, is a weekly publication, published every Wednesday by IMM Publi- cations Inc. 415 N. Killingsworth St. P.O. Box 5455 Portland, OR 97228 Telephone (503) 285-5555 Fax: (503) 285-2900 info@theskanner.com www.TheSkanner.com The Skanner is a member of the National Newspaper Pub lishers Association and West Coast Black Pub lishers Association. All photos submitted become the property of The Skanner. We are not re spon sible for lost or damaged photos either solicited or unsolicited. ©2017 The Skanner. All rights re served. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission prohibited. Local News Pacific NW News World News Opinions Jobs, Bids Entertainment Community Calendar RSS feeds NEXT WEEK: CAREERS SPECIAL EDITION Opinion Ensuring the Promise of the Every Student Succeeds Act D uring the month of May, many of us celebrat- ed the 63rd anniver- sary of the Brown vs. Board of Education decision. The unanimous 1954 rul- ing by the United States Su- preme Court declared that “separate educational facilities are inherently un- equal.” Last week, the Na- tional Newspaper Publishers Association partnered with the Thurgood Marshall Cen- ter for Service and Heritage for a special tribute to the first African American Su- preme Court Justice. We also reflected on the significance of an improved national edu- cation law. The preservation of Thurgood Marshall’s leg- acy is dependent upon our dedication to our children. In a column for The Wash- ington Post, Richard Roth- stein, a research associate at the Economic Policy Institute, noted that, “Today, nearly half of all black students attend majority black schools, with over 70 percent in high-pov- erty school districts.” High poverty school dis- tricts are often overwhelmed by the external consequenc- es of poverty that distract Elizabeth Primas Program Manager, NNPA/ESSA Campaign students from learning and prevent effective class- room instruction. Chronic absenteeism, poor nutri- tion, and various forms of abuse, are a few of the chal- lenges facing high poverty school districts. Although, in- school psychological and “ ask ourselves the question, “How far have we come?” We struggled to be allowed to get an education. We fought to have equal access to qual- ity education. We endured forced integration, only to be placed at the back of the class- room and ignored. The Every Student Succeeds Act attempts (ESSA) to fulfill the promise of a high-qual- ity education for all of our children. ESSA advocates for qualified teachers, high stan- dards, a robust programs, and assessments, which inform classroom instruction. The law, which was passed during the Obama Ad- ministration, also returns some re- sponsibilities to create innovative and equitable ed- ucational policies back to Local Education Agen- cies (LEA). In response to the passage of ESSA in December 2015, thirty-seven civil rights and education groups issued the following statement, “The El- ementary and Secondary Education Act is our nation’s most important civil rights The preservation of Thurgood Marshall’s legacy is dependent upon our dedication to our children academic resources cannot eliminate these challenges completely, they do help to mitigate their effects. Yet, many of these programs are routinely underfunded. So, on the 63rd anniversary of the landmark decision to integrate educational institu- tions in the United States, we law for promoting education- al achievement and protect- ing the rights and interests of students disadvantaged by discrimination, poverty and other conditions that may limit their educational oppor- tunity.” So, yes, we acknowledge that a single law won’t solve all of the challenges facing our community, but we still have a duty to continue the fight for equity in education for the benefit of our children, especially poor students and students of color. The key to the success of this education law rest in the hands of par- ents and communities across the nation. Together, we can fulfill the promise of ESSA and ensure that every student succeeds. Learn more about the Every Student Succeeds Act at nnpa. org/essa. Dr. Elizabeth Primas is an educator, who spent more than 40 years working towards im- proving education for children of diverse ethnicities and back- grounds. Dr. Primas is the pro- gram manager for the NNPA’s Every Student Succeeds Act Media Campaign. Follow her on Twitter @elizabethprimas. CFPB Sues Ocwen Financial over Unfair Mortgage Practices F amilies, who have assem- bled the necessary finan- cial resources to apply, qualify, and then pur- chase a home, understand- ably value that key invest- ment and its accompanying opportunity to build wealth; but buying the home is just the first step of securing the American Dream of home- ownership. What many homeowners soon discover is that faith- fully paying a monthly mort- gage is in some cases, just not enough. Although homebuy- ers choose their lender, they do not choose who services their loan – the company that accepts and processes their monthly payments. Nowa- days, very few lenders also service loans made. Instead, a third party receives pay- ments, maintains account re- cords, and serves as the first point of contact should ques- tions arise. Borrowers can also be caught in errors created by servicers whose records may not have been complete, in- correctly posted to accounts and more. Over the life of a loan, multiple servicers from different firms may man- age a single mortgage loan. If a borrower discovers that something is amiss on their loan records, they can soon find themselves in a financial maze, trying to decipher who did what and when with their faithful payments. Moreover, while these consumers seek to find out what exactly hap- Charlene Crowell NNPA Columnist pened, both fines and fees can be assessed, or even foreclo- sures filed. Imagine that scenario af- fecting 1.4 million mortgage loans in all 50 states, with a “ Ocwen borrowers. “Enough is enough, said Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. “Florida’s distressed Ocwen borrowers should no longer have to en- dure costly servicing errors and unfair practices.” “Ocwen has repeatedly made mistakes and taken shortcuts at every stage of the mortgage servicing pro- cess, costing some consum- ers money and others their homes,” said CFPB Director Richard Cordray. “Borrowers Borrowers can get caught in er- rors created by servicers whose records may not have been com- plete, incorrectly posted to ac- counts and more combined unpaid principal balance of $209 billion. Even worse, imagine this disheart- ening scenario happening with a firm that specializes in servicing delinquent and sub- prime loans in years follow- ing the enactment of strong federal legislation designed to ensure protections from fi- nancial misbehaviors. In late April, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), along with the Flor- ida Attorney General and the state’s Office of Financial Regulation, filed lawsuits alleging Ocwen Financial Corporation with a litany of ills affecting virtually every phase of mortgage servicing. The Florida lawsuit alone, affects more than 125,000 have no say over who services their mortgage, so the Bureau will remain vigilant to ensure they get fair treatment.” The lengthy and new allega- tions against Ocwen include: • Failure to credit multiple borrowers’ payments, or to correct billing and payment errors; • Mishandled hazard insur- ance that led to the lapse of 10,000 borrowers’ home- owners’ insurance; • Illegally foreclosing on at least 1,000 people – even though borrowers had been given 30 days to submit information to servicers, servicers instead initiated foreclosure proceedings and sales; and • Deceptive enrollment and charges to borrowers for add-on products. Readers may recall that many of the foreclosures that affected Black and Lati- no neighborhoods during the housing crisis were high- cost, unsustainable adjust- able-rate-mortgage loans. As mortgage brokers were paid financial kickbacks called ‘yield spread premiums’ for selling these loans, borrow- ers were often steered into these higher-cost loans, not knowing that the broker had an additional financial incen- tive. “In 2013, the $2.1 billion joint state and national fore- closure settlement intended to provide compensation to mortgage borrowers who were harmed during the housing crisis,” said Nikitra Bailey, an EVP with the Cen- ter for Responsible Lending. “Dodd-Frank’s Wall Street Reform Act imposed new requirements for mortgage servicers, and authorized the Consumer Financial Protec- tion Bureau (CFPB) to imple- ment requirements and adopt new rules, which the Bureau did in 2013.” “At the same time,” contin- ued Bailey, “this new litiga- tion underscores the value that the CFPB brings to con- sumers. Congress should al- low the CFPB to continue to do its job.” Read the rest of this commentary at TheSkanner.com
