Richard Cordray, photographed during his time as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, speaks with the USA TODAY Editorial Board in McLean, Va, in 2013.
The top Biden administration official in charge of administering federal college financial aid has resigned, the Education Department said Friday, capping off a year of turmoil for students and universities.
Richard Cordray, the chief operating officer for Federal Student Aid, will step down at the end of June, officials said. The former head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Cordray faced mounting criticism from congressional Republicans to leave his post amid calamitous delays in the college financial aid process.
In a statement to USA TODAY, Cordray said his office has achieved key milestones in his three-year term. He has agreed to stay on for an interim transition period.
Start the day smarter. Get all the news you need in your inbox each morning.
“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.
Cordray’s departure comes as scores of high school seniors across the country await aid offers they typically would have received by now. Repeated glitches and errors in the rollout of the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, truncated the decision-making timelines for hundreds of thousands of students. College officials have scrambled to get aid offers out the door, sometimes using inaccurate information to make crucial calculations about how much families should expect to pay for college in the fall.
The FAFSA blunders haven’t let up. Now the Education Department has a credibility issue.
Congress mandated that the form be simplified, a bipartisan effort that Republicans and Democrats agreed was long overdue. But the Education Department’s implementation of the new FAFSA this year was beset with problems, eroding trust between the federal government, higher education institutions, students and their families.
Cordray was at the forefront. His most recent publicly available performance contract indicated that his top priority on the job was implementing the new FAFSA. Republicans, and some former Education Department officials, say he lost sight of that goal and focused too much on student loan relief efforts instead.
In a statement Friday, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona praised Cordray for “fixing the broken student loan system.” He did not specifically mention Cordray’s role in the FAFSA rollout.
“It’s no exaggeration to say that Rich helped change millions of lives for the better,” Cardona said.
Contributing: Swapna Venugopal, USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Top Education Department official steps down amid crisis over college financial aid
News Related-
Russian court extends detention of Wall Street Journal reporter Gershkovich until end of January
-
Russian court extends detention of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, arrested on espionage charges
-
Israel's economy recovered from previous wars with Hamas, but this one might go longer, hit harder
-
Stock market today: Asian shares mixed ahead of US consumer confidence and price data
-
EXCLUSIVE: ‘Sister Wives' star Christine Brown says her kids' happy marriages inspired her leave Kody Brown
-
NBA fans roast Clippers for losing to Nuggets without Jokic, Murray, Gordon
-
Panthers-Senators brawl ends in 10-minute penalty for all players on ice
-
CNBC Daily Open: Is record Black Friday sales spike a false dawn?
-
Freed Israeli hostage describes deteriorating conditions while being held by Hamas
-
High stakes and glitz mark the vote in Paris for the 2030 World Expo host
-
Biden’s unworkable nursing rule will harm seniors
-
Jalen Hurts: We did what we needed to do when it mattered the most
-
LeBron James takes NBA all-time minutes lead in career-worst loss
-
Vikings' Kevin O'Connell to evaluate Josh Dobbs, path forward at QB