The Department of Education's Inspector General has identified and prosecuted 17 cases where borrowers received large amounts in student loans by claiming falsely to be pursuing studies at foreign institutions. Officials see serious statutory, regulatory, and program deficiencies that may expose programs to more fraud and abuse. Critics feel the…

This report discusses the continuing concerns of the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) in regard to the Department of Education's management and oversight of postsecondary student financial aid programs, especially the Federal Family Education Loan, the Ford Direct Loan, and the Federal Pell Grant Programs. GAO commends the department for its…

Describes how a federal program let a California for-profit institution, the Masters Institute, expand its distance education offerings, but then led to its closure because of findings of financial aid fraud. (EV)

A recent Department of Education study, developed with the assistance of the Internal Revenue Service, found that of 2.3 million Pell Grants in 1995-96, 102,000 went to students who failed to report or underreported family income. More than 300 recipients had each underreported income by over $100,000. The report comes when the Clinton…

This pamphlet summarizes the accomplishments of the United States Department of Education's Office of Inspector General (OIG) during the 6-month period ended March 31, 1990. The pamphlet focuses on audit, investigative, and other activities, in order to provide information about current OIG efforts to prevent and detect fraud, waste, or…

It appears that many of the problems plaguing the Federal Student Aid Programs are also undermining the Pell Grant program, not so much from dishonesty on the part of students, but by dishonesty on the part of schools. This document presents testimony and prepared statements concerning the allegations of fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in the…

The impact of institutional efforts to validate Basic Educational Opportunity Grant applications was assessed during 1978-1979. Attention was directed to: detecting possible underpayment and overpayment to Basic Grant applicants due to inaccurate reporting; assessing the adequacy of the pre-established criteria for detecting possible misreporting;…

Public officials and student aid experts agree that the federal program delivery system is outdated, inefficient, and vulnerable to fraud, but they disagree on how bad the situation is and whether the Education Department has the structure necessary to fix it. A 1995 project to integrate all federal grant and loan programs into one system has not…

This report provides an overview of efforts undertaken by the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) in 1990 to review and report on federal program areas its work identified as high risk because of vulnerabilities to waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement. It reviews the current status of efforts to address these concerns. The six categories of…

Procedures for validating data reported by students and parents on an application for Basic Educational Opportunity Grants were developed in 1978 for the U.S. Office of Education (OE). Validation activities include: validation of flagged Student Eligibility Reports (SERs) for students whose schools are part of the Alternate Disbursement System;…

Describes the varied kinds of student aid fraud found to be occurring within and outside colleges and universities, and examines implications for public policy on student aid programs. Discusses specific fraud cases and their outcomes, and makes suggestions for institutional action if student fraud is suspected. (MSE)

The purpose of this hearing was to probe a pattern of fraud and abuse in the Pell Grant Program for postsecondary students, focusing specifically on the IADE American Schools, a for-profit vocational school with campuses in the Los Angeles (California) area and serving primarily Hispanic students. In his opening remarks Senator Roth detailed a…

This report examines the U.S. Department of Education's Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) and Federal Pell Grant Program (FPGP), focusing on the extent to which the Department's student aid data are effectively used to help ensure compliance with federal requirements and prevent any abuses from recurring and the improvements that the…

Reporting of zero/low income by applicants for Basic Educational Opportunity Grants (BEOGs) was studied, with attention to the extent that such reporting was inaccurate. The BEOG applicant database was studied to gain understanding of the characteristics of those who report zero-income on Basic Grant applications. A random sample of 400,000 BEOG…

Parameters and procedures for developing an error-prone model (EPM) to predict financial aid applicants who are likely to misreport on Basic Educational Opportunity Grant (BEOG) applications are introduced. Specifications to adapt these general parameters to secondary data analysis of the Validation, Edits, and Applications Processing Systems…