Richard Cordray has led the Office of Federal Student Aid since May 2021. His three-year appointment is up next week.
Photo by Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post via Getty Images
Richard Cordray, the chief operating officer of Federal Student Aid, is leaving the agency after facing calls from Congressional Republicans to resign over the botched roll-out of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.
Cordray will lead the agency through the end of June, “in order to oversee the completion of key priorities within the organization,” the Education Department said in a news release late Friday morning. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona praised Cordray’s leadership of the agency as “consequential.”
Friday’s announcement comes as the department works to fix a variety of issues with the new FAFSA and grapples with the fallout. Cordray’s departure will also add to the leadership churn at Federal Student Aid, an agency within the department that manages the FAFSA and student loan programs. Cordray is the third person in seven years to serve as chief operating officer of Federal Student Aid, an ostensibly nonpolitical job that’s become increasingly politicized in recent years with leadership of the agency changing with each new presidential administration.
“Over my tenure, we provided student loan forgiveness to more than 4,000,000 borrowers and their families; made it easier for people to apply for and manage federal student aid; and took strong actions to hold schools accountable for defrauding students,” Cordray said in a statement. “I have agreed to stay on for an interim period to help with the transition.”
Cordray’s three-year appointment ends in early May, and he decided not to continue for another term, according to a department official.
A former Ohio attorney general and former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Cordray took over the Office of Federal Student Aid in May 2021. As chief operating officer, he oversaw the restart of student loan payments, the Biden administration’s debt relief efforts and other projects. As the scale of the FAFSA fiasco became clear, Congressional Republicans laid the blame at his feet and called for his ouster.
“It’s time for Cordray to go and for the department to wake up and realize that blindly following Biden’s agenda is irreparably damaging student success,” Representative Virginia Foxx, the North Carolina Republican who chairs the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, said earlier this month.
The Education Department said earlier this month that it was not the time to point fingers.
Cardona said in a statement that he was grateful for Cordray’s three years of service, “in which he accomplished more transformational changes to the student aid system than any of his predecessors.” The statement specifically highlighted changes to fix the Public Service Loan Forgiveness as well as income-driven repayment programs. Cardona noted that Cordray also revitalized the FSA Enforcement Unit.
“It’s no exaggeration to say that Rich helped change millions of lives for the better,” Cardona said.
One project left off the list of Cordray’s accomplishments? FAFSA.
Katherine Knott
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