Page 2 The Skanner May 24, 2017
Challenging People to Shape
a Better Future Now
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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
