The Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC) is a left-of-center policy organization that argues that the student loan industry is predatory and underregulated. It was formed in response to employees of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) resigning as a result of policy disagreements during the first Trump administration. ^{1 2}

History

The Student Borrower Protection Center was formed in 2018 after Seth Frotman, a bureaucrat with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) who resigned in the middle of the year, declared that the administration of President Donald Trump was undermining the agency’s mission in regard to student loans. In response to Frotman’s public resignation letter, the then-acting head of the CFPB, then-Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, stated that Frotman had overstepped his statutory authority while employed by the bureau. Frotman was joined by two other CFPB employees who resigned, one of whom, Mike Pierce, is as of early 2025 the executive director of the center. ²

Since SBPC’s founding, it has produced research dealing with various aspects of the student loan ecosystem, while also touching on some other closely related labor issues. ¹

Finances

The Student Borrower Protection Center is a fiscally sponsored project of the Shared Ascent Fund. As a result, the center’s specific finances are not broken down in the fund’s annual tax return. However, the Shared Ascent Fund does publish an annual financial audit. This audit reveals that in 2023, $2,700,736 in funding was spent on SBPC activities and expenses, and that there are $341,044 in net assets earmarked for the center that have not yet been spent. ³

The fund’s tax return reports that Mike Pierce, the co-founder and executive director of SBPC, was paid $276,513 in total compensation for 2023. The tax return also indicates that the firm received $25,000 in government grants, though it is not clear from the tax form what program this grant was allocated to. ⁴

When the project was initially launched in 2018, it was reported that the main backer of the project was the Sandler Foundation. The foundation’s tax form for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2023, states that it provided a grant of $1,000 to the Shared Ascent Fund earmarked for the Student Borrower Protection Center. ⁵

Organization Philosophy

The Student Borrower Protection Center argues that the student loan industry is predatory and unregulated. It claims that the businesses involved in the industry regularly rip people off and are actively ruining lives. The center also believes that the second Trump administration will be disastrous for the financial, regulatory, and policy issues that it works on. ^{1 6}

Projects and Initiatives

The Student Borrower Protection Center has a variety of policy issue areas and information services that it provides. These include claims that student loans are an issue of racial justice, and various legal and research-oriented programs aimed at securing debt relief and regulatory changes. ⁷

Leadership

Mike Pierce is the co-founder and executive director of the Student Borrower Protection Center. Prior to forming SBPC, he was the deputy assistant director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and for seven years was considered the bureau’s main internal expert when it came to consumer protection within higher education. ⁸

Seth Frotman was a co-founder of SBPC after resigning from the CFPB. He returned to the CFPB during the Biden administration, this time as general counsel, but quickly resigned, once again, once President Donald Trump began his second administration. ^{2 9}

1. “About Us.” Student Borrower Protection Center. Accessed February 24, 2025. https://protectborrowers.org/who-we-are/.
2. Cowley, Stacy. “A Student Loan Help Center, Created by Critics of Trump’s Enforcement Efforts.” The New York Times, November 28, 2018, sec. Business. Accessed February 24, 2025. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/28/business/student-loans-seth-frotman.html.
3.  “Financial Statements Shared Ascent Fund.” Shared Ascent Fund. Accessed February 24, 2025. https://sharedascentfund.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/SAF-2023-Audited-Financial-Statements_Final.pdf.
4. Shared Ascent Fund, Return of an organization exempt from taxation (Form 990) Part VII-VIII, 2023.
5. Sandler Foundation, Return of an organization exempt from taxation (Form 990) Schedule I, Part II, 2022.
6. “Home.” Student Borrower Protection Center. Accessed February 24, 2025. https://protectborrowers.org/.
7.  “What We Do.” Student Borrower Protection Center. Accessed February 24, 2025. https://protectborrowers.org/projects/.
8. “Our Team.” Student Borrower Protection Center. Accessed February 24, 2025. https://protectborrowers.org/who-we-are/our-team/.
9. Willis, Stefanie Jackman, James Kim, Jesse Silverman, Lori Sommerfield, Chris. “New Leadership and Dramatic Changes at the CFPB: Future of the Bureau Uncertain.” Consumer Financial Services Law Monitor, February 10, 2025. Accessed February 24, 2025.  https://www.consumerfinancialserviceslawmonitor.com/2025/02/new-leadership-and-dramatic-changes-at-the-cfpb-future-of-the-bureau-uncertain/.