By COLLIN BINKLEY,  Associated Press

Students who are defrauded by their schools would have a harder time getting their federal loans erased under new rules proposed by the Trump administration Wednesday.

The proposal, which aims to replace a set of Obama-era rules that were never implemented, drew applause from the for-profit industry but sharp criticism from advocacy groups that represent student borrowers.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said the proposal lays out clear rules schools must follow to avoid trouble, while also protecting students harmed by deception.

Today ED took action to protect student borrowers and hold higher education institutions accountable for deceptive practices. See our proposal: https://t.co/Xl0KLCf7YM

— US Dept of Education (@usedgov) July 25, 2018

“Our commitment and our focus has been and remains on protecting students from fraud,” DeVos said.

Under the proposal, students would be eligible for loan relief if they can prove their schools knowingly misled them with statements or actions that directly led them to take out loans or enroll at the school.

That would be a higher bar than the borrower defense rules finalized under Obama in 2016 after the collapse of two for-profit schools, Corinthian Colleges and ITT Technical Institute. Those rules allowed relief in a wider range of cases dealing with breach of contract.

Education Department documents supporting DeVos’ proposal argue that, while students should be protected from fraud, they also have an obligation to do their research before picking schools.

“Postsecondary students are adults who can be reasonably expected to make informed decisions if they have access to relevant and reliable data about program outcomes,” the department said.

The new proposal is estimated to save nearly $13 billion over the next decade compared with spending estimates under the Obama rules, primarily by reducing the amount of loan relief awarded to students.

Department officials say they have received more than 100,000 fraud claims since 2015, and most are still under review. But the new rules would apply only to loans taken out after July 1, 2019, officials said.

Schools would gain an opportunity to respond to claims of fraud under the new proposal, which says schools deserve to defend themselves against accusations that could damage their reputations and revenue.

It also would allow schools to force students into arbitration agreements barring them from suing the school, a practice used by some for-profit colleges that would have been banned under Obama’s rules.

Opponents blasted the proposal, saying it places schools ahead of students and discourages victims from pursuing financial relief.

“It encourages abusive and predatory institutions to continue to rip off students with impunity, while slamming the door on the debt relief that Congress has instructed the department to provide to cheated students,” said Toby Merrill, director of the Project on Predatory Student Lending at Harvard University.

Bob Shireman, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation and a former education official under Obama, said the proposal “is perhaps the most damaging action Betsy DeVos has taken since assuming office.”

“These changes would effectively strip students of their right to recourse if they believe that a college or university has misled them, making it next to impossible for defrauded students to get the relief they are entitled to,” he said.

But the changes were hailed as an improvement by the for-profit college industry and some Republicans.

Steve Gunderson, president and CEO of the trade group Career Education Colleges and Universities, said previous versions of the rules allowed for “carte blanche approval” of fraud claims, to the detriment of schools and their students.

“The department has undertaken a thoughtful and deliberate approach to this rule, and we applaud their hard work on this important matter,” Gunderson said.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, a Republican from Tennessee and chairman of the Senate education committee, said DeVos’ proposal will prevent taxpayers from footing the bill for “unreasonable or unsubstantiated claims of fraud.”

“The Obama administration went too far in rewriting this provision by setting overly broad and vague standards and as a result, put taxpayers on the hook for too many loans,” he said.

Obama’s education officials created new rules to clarify the debt relief process after thousands of students said they were defrauded by for-profit colleges. Before that, the process was rarely used and relied on a patchwork of state laws to determine if students deserved loan forgiveness.

The updated rules were scheduled to take effect in July 2017, but DeVos delayed them after a California group representing for-profit schools sued to block the regulations. DeVos began the process to replace them soon after.

Meanwhile, the department has only recently begun to process a backlog of fraud claims, announcing in December that it will provide only partial relief to borrowers based on their incomes. Under the Obama administration, students were granted full relief for their loans.

On Wednesday, the department said it will be gathering public input on the proposed for the next 30 days. Along with opinions on the rules, officials are also asking if borrowers still making payments on their loans should be able to apply for forgiveness at all, or if it should be reserved for those who default.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Mighty Mouse is missing in Wichita.

Christopher Gulick says someone managed to steal a 200-pound, brightly colored log sculpture of Mighty Mouse from his backyard Tuesday night. The sculpture, which was a gift from another artist, is about 5 feet tall and painted bright yellow, blue, red and black.

The Wichita Eagle reports Gulick estimates the sculpture has been on his back porch for about 25 years. It’s one of many sculptures that Gulick, known locally for his kinetic mobile sculptures, has in his backyard.

Gulick says he would probably be mad about the theft if it wasn’t so stupid and funny at the same time. He says he suspects the thieves are suffering from a severe hangover.

Anyone with information about Mighty Mouse is asked to call Wichita police.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump and European Union leaders announced Wednesday they have agreed to work toward “zero tariffs” and “zero subsidies” on non-automobile goods and would work to resolve U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports that have roiled European markets.

The president, in a hastily called Rose Garden statement with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, said the EU had agreed to buy “a lot of soybeans” and increase its imports of liquefied natural gas from the U.S. Juncker, meanwhile, said the U.S. and EU had agreed to hold off on further tariffs as part of trade talks aimed at averting a crippling trade dispute involving the lucrative automobile market.

Trump told reporters it was a “very big day for free and fair trade” and vowed to “resolve the steel and aluminum tariff issues and we will resolve retaliatory tariffs. We have some tariffs that are retaliatory and that will get resolved as part of what we’re doing.”

“We’re starting the negotiation right now, but we know very much where it’s going,” Trump said after talks with European counterparts.

Juncker said he had an “intention to make a deal today and we made a deal today. We have identified a number of areas on which to work together, work towards zero tariffs on industrial goods. That was my main intention, for those to come down to zero tariffs on industrial goods.”

As U.S. soybean farmers have struggled against retaliatory tariffs, Juncker said the EU “can import more soybeans from the U.S. and it will be done.” He said the two sides also agreed to work together to reform the World Trade Organization, which Trump has vehemently criticized as being unfair to the U.S.

Earlier in the Oval Office, Juncker told Trump that the two trading partners were “allies, not enemies” and said they needed to work together to address recent frictions involving Trump’s threats to impose tariffs on auto imports and EU plans to retaliate.

Trump has placed tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, saying they pose a threat to U.S. national security, an argument that the EU and Canada reject. He has also threatened to slap tariffs on imported cars, trucks and auto parts, potentially targeting imports that last year totaled $335 billion.

The president has repeatedly called the EU — which includes many of the U.S.’ oldest and most committed allies — an unfair trading partner and even labeled it a “foe.”

The European Union has warned that it will retaliate with tariffs on products worth $20 billion if Trump puts duties on cars and auto parts from Europe.

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WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A group of volunteers who helped search for a 5-year-old Kansas boy who was later found dead plans to start a charter of a nationally known Texas-based search organization.

Sheila Medlam and Julie La Force spent countless hours leading searches for Lucas Hernandez, who was missing more than three months before his body was found in May.

The Texas EquuSearch group came to Wichita to help with the search. It is a mounted search and recovery team with more than 1,000 members available to search worldwide for missing persons.

EquuSearch founder Tim Miller says he was impressed with the Kansas volunteers helping to search for Lucas.

La Force, Medlam and others will go to Houston on October 13th to receive their EquuSearch training.