The Education Department announced Monday the creation of a unit dedicated to investigating fraud by colleges, especially in the case of for-profit colleges. After the recent closings of several for-profit colleges, the new(ish) Federal Student Aid Enforcement Unit can hopefully bring an end to the abusive schools that take students’ money without giving them a useful education or a credible degree.
“This new unit will allow us to respond more quickly and efficiently to allegations of illegal actions,” said Secretary of Education John B. King in a news conference, according to The Washington Post. However, “new” might not exactly the right word. The unit is in many ways just a reshaped structure of many agencies that already existed in the Department.
Ted Mitchell, the Education Department’s Under Secretary for higher education, said that the Federal Student Aid Enforcement unit “builds on the work of the last seven years.” The Department has always maintained the powers that the unit has, including the abilities to take away federal aid and to investigate the schools.
“It’s simply imperative that students taking on significant financial obligations not be subject to enrollment abuses, that they get accurate information, and that their financial aid is properly allocated, said Mitchell, according to BuzzFeed News.
The task force’s creation comes a week after two major frauds were uncovered. Marinello Schools of Beauty, a for-profit chain of schools around the country, allegedly withheld federal loans from students and gave out many very doubtful high school diplomas. Meanwhile, another school called the Computer Systems Institute made up several businesses at which graduates supposedly found jobs. One of these “businesses” turned out to be just an empty warehouse owned by a homeless man, BuzzFeed reports.
While some people think that this is an awesome step forward, many critics have complained that its not enough. This is because of Corinthian Colleges, which closed in 2015. Corinthian had been accused of lying to and defrauding students since 2006, but the Education Department did nothing about it. They continued allowing the schools to receive billions in federal aid until last year.
College is expensive as it is. When schools lie, overcharge students, and sell worthless degrees, they deserve to be shut down before they can hurt any more people’s futures. The real question is if the government is doing enough to stop them.