Another Day, Another Scandal in the Bush Administration: The College Loan Fiasco

[demobabe]

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT

The newest Washington scandal has all the hallmarks of Bush Administration corruption: conflicts of interest among top officials, promoting big business at the expense of regular Americans, and Congressional Democrats uncovering the truth to solve the problem. Yes, the college loan debacle is a model Bush failure.

Theresa Shaw is stepping down in disgrace after five years as the head of the Education Department's Federal Student Aid office, which oversees the $85 billion student loan industry. Supposed to oversee, that is. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo told the House Education committee that the Department has been "asleep at the switch."

The House Education committee discovered that JP Morgan Chase, one of the largest student lenders, has been allowed to basically do whatever it wants. The company hired officials from five different colleges while they were still on their colleges' payrolls - a clear conflict of interest. It also paid over $70,000 for a harbor cruise in New York City to bribe more than 200 college financial aid officers.

House Education Chairman George Miller (D-CA) sent a letter to Education Secretary Margaret Spellings demanding she take "immediate action" to halt what Cuomo called "several significant, deceptive, and illegal practices." For example, some colleges received a percentage of loan proceeds from lenders in return for being given "preferred status" by the schools.

Full story here: http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/alerts/240

[htuttle]

1. Well, that's the same tactic that the mob uses with garbage collection contracts

But for some reason, I don't expect any of them to be moving into John Gotti's old cell...