Department of Education

Reprinted with permission from C. Cryn Johannsen at All Education Matters. This is a fantastic piece Sarah linked to earlier today; we wanted to make sure everyone saw it in its entirety.

Yesterday morning few people were aware of what had happened to Kenneth Wright's rights in Stockton, California. Thanks to the hard work of numerous advocates, however, that changed within hours of a local news story about the use of excessive force.

People across the country - and even the globe (my own work was being retweeted by people in Stockholm and London) - learned that Wright's door was broken down by federal agents, he was handcuffed in his underwear, and thrown into a patrol car for 6 hours. Although the initial report from News10 suggested that the warrant for Wright's estranged wife was for her defaulted federal loans, the story quickly changed over the course of the day. (News10 took the story down once it went viral and has provided an updated version that discusses the use of excessive force. There is no mention of defaulted loans. In addition, News10 released the warrant that indicates that fraud was being committed. However, it is truncated and the entire warrant remains sealed).

It is common knowledge among higher education finance experts that the Department of Education's Office of Inspector's General (OIG) conducts search warrants. Moreover, these cases, as Press Officer Sara Gast explained to me in a recent email, are generally related to investigations of "bribery, fraud, and embezzlement of federal student aid funds." Such investigations are generally limited, Gast told me, to 30 - 35 search warrants a year. But the general public is not privy to this type of activity. (When I followed up with Gast by phone, she provided me with Press Secretary Justin Hamilton's direct line. As of this writing, a call from Hamilton has not been returned).

While Wright's estranged wife may be involved in fraudulent activity, there are two crucial points about this unfolding story. First, it spread like wildfire throughout the blogosphere because it was fueled by fear. Bloggers on the left and the right picked up on the story, and that led to major media outlets putting out reports, too. There is good reason for why it became so hotly discussed. There is a growing number of indentured educated citizens who are fast approaching financial disaster. Thousands and thousands of them have shared their stories with me over the past 2 years. The use of force by the Department resonated with countless readers. Many of them wrote on Facebook pages and tweeted, "It's scary. What if that happened to me?" . . . "I'm close to defaulting on my loans. Will the Department break down my door?"

We all know that there is no way out of this debt, especially if you fall on hard times. The system has been rigged in such a way that allows companies, like Sallie Mae, to benefit from keeping people in debt. Sallie Mae has $146 billion of federal loans on its books. One analyst said, "They have this cash cow which is the legacy portfolio." Hear that, folks? They are making money off of indentured educated people! Make no mistake - they don't want this 'cash cow' to go away. No one talks about the fact that FFELP is still alive. The administration might have put an end to it, but those loans are still out there and part of these loan sharks' portfolios. So, if you default on any federal loans, you're life is pretty much ruined, whereas the IRS has the power to resolve issues with distressed taxpayers. Both parties can come up with a solution and move on. Student debtors have no such luck. But since we're seen as a 'cash cow,' why would anyone in power want that to change? I'm sure those guys over at Sallie Mae, who live in luxurious mansions on the east coast don't want this to change. Neither do the schools. They all control the money, whereas the rest of us are victims of these hucksters. But I digress.

Second, the use of such excessive force was uncalled for. Why an individual who is being sought for fraud warrants a SWAT team -- as it was originally reported -- suggests how far right this country has moved. Wright must have been traumatized when he was handcuffed in his underwear and thrown into a patrol car for 6 hours. His children, who are 3, 7, and 11, had to have been disturbed by the incident as well.

Moreover, this story has fueled numerous and ongoing conspiracy theories. But the elements of the story, along with a great deal of speculation (which was justified), lent themselves to that. It should come as no surprise since the characteristics of American conspiracy theorists are the same as Christian fundamentalists. Fear is also what adds fuel to conspiracy theorists' fire. (They also the need to simplify complex situations. In addition, conspiracy theorists oftentimes - not always - fail to comprehend systemic issues and place too much emphasis on individual agency. Mind you, I am not suggesting that conspiracy theorists are unintelligent, but I do wish to make clear that I do not identify with this type of thinking).

One thing is clear, regardless of how you think or how you identify yourself politically, the Department is tone deaf and reviled across the board. They are as hated, as I've already stated, as Sallie Mae. I had always thought that, but yesterday's outrage drove that home. If they don't get it together, along with the politicians and self-interested lobbyists in DC, we might very well experience a revolution in this country as well. People don't like it when they feel that their future has been stolen from them. A lot of folks want their future back. DC better start listening . . .

We know what democracy means. We won't settle for economic slavery.

Last week, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan appeared before the White House Press Corps to discuss some of the Obama administration's changes to the FAFSA form, explaining that the present form was complicated enough to drive away many families who would have otherwise sent their children to college.

With simplification being the goal, Duncan enumerated the changes that the Dept. of Education can make now, without congressional approval.

As Duncan laid out the plan Wednesday, the Education Department will, right now, make several changes that do not require Congressional approval. This summer, the department will take advantage of existing technology on the Web-based FAFSA to allow married or independent students to skip questions about their parents, among others. In January, the department will stop requiring students with low incomes to answer questions about their financial assets, and only returning students will be asked about prior drug convictions, since the question does not affect first-year students. Department officials said they would work closely with state officials to set up the electronic form to "make it easier to answer questions that the states need but the federal government does not."

January will also mark the start of the department's test of a system to allow students who apply for aid for the spring 2010 semester to retrieve relevant tax information from the Internal Revenue Service to help them complete the online FAFSA. "When you're online filling out the FAFSA, there'll be a button that says, 'Want to go get your IRS data?' " said Shulman of the IRS.

Education Department officials say that the test will see whether the process of using IRS data to populate the FAFSA is workable, and that by focusing on students applying in the spring, they can postpone the thorny question of whether to use year-old tax data -- which creates potential challenges for financial aid officers and students alike when families' financial fortunes change significantly. "We haven't yet made the decision about whether to go to 'prior prior year,' " said Robert Shireman, deputy under secretary of education. "This will allow us to give the system a shot, and look at the prior prior year question later." About half of financial aid applicants -- those who attend college in the spring and many community college and other students who apply for aid late in the summer, right before the fall semester starts -- should be able to populate their FAFSA forms with current year data from the IRS, he said.

The thornier issues arise with the proposed changes that can't be made without congressional approval.

Department officials said they would ask Congress to eliminate a total of 29 questions about students' and families' finances that are not on the federal tax form. Several of those relate to families' assets ("As of today, what is the net worth of your (and spouse’s) investments, including real estate (not your home)?"), and eliminating the consideration of assets for most students by abandoning those questions would be among the more controversial steps the Obama plan calls for.

Most states and many private colleges now use the federal needs analysis methodology to decide how to allocate their own financial aid. While a panel of experts convened by the College Board last year called for determining financial need based solely on families' adjusted gross income and number of dependents, some college officials worry that states and colleges might stop using the FAFSA -- and require students to fill out other forms to apply for state or institutional aid -- if they no longer believe the federal form gives them sufficient information on which to base their decisions.

I like that the Obama administration is taking aim at a major obstacle to young Americans, otherwise eligible, receiving college educations. From my own experience, the FAFSA was a yearly headache for my dad and me every February.

I'm wondering if these proposed solutions are missing opportunities to bring community members' skills into the mix. A comment on the insidehighered.com story to which I linked earlier proposed that financial aid professionals be asked to provide pro-bono service at regularly scheduled "FAFSA Completion Night Programs." Those choosing to give back and participate would then be recognized in their community for their work. The idea, according to the commenter, would be to build off these programs and create events that would lead to more proactive financial preparations for college years ahead of time. With Obama's community organizing background and past articulation of the importance of citizenship and giving back, I think this approach would only make sense.