Closing up the cracks

Getting into college certainly involves putting yourself out there.

As most of us neared our final year of high school we sent out massive amounts of personal information in search of a college acceptance letter, as well as some student aid.

Now, to track down potential fraud or misuse, the Department of Education’s inspector general’s office plans to create a new central database of computer records that it hopes will help the office do a better job of detecting waste and abuse in government programs, according to an article published Wednesday in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Given the large amounts of personal information we have sent out searching for that one extra scholarship, grant or student loan, this might seem a little disturbing. In fact, several higher-education lobbying groups are objecting to this new initiative on privacy grounds.

They claim this auditing agency is seeking “an unfettered right to engage in data-mining on records of individuals who have had any interaction with the department.”

This editorial board has always proposed increasing federal student aid to beleaguered students, but there is a flip side. Rather than increasing funding for student aid, a lot can come from making the process more efficient. So what, you might ask, is being done to make sure current funds are actually used to get more students into college?

The Education Department oversees the delivery of nearly $100 billion in federal aid for higher education each year. Such a sum is hardly chump change, though it is, alas, a small slice compared to the recent financial bailout.

The Education Department is obviously wary of such funds being misallocated. Investigating potential misuse, it discovered that Nelnet, a major for-profit student-loan provider, had kept some $300 million in disputed federal student-loan subsidies.

This new initiative provides no guarantee of success. A department that many already claim is understaffed could potentially become overwhelmed by the new information. Even if they don’t do anything maniacal with the information they gather they might not be prepared to do anything useful with it.

Yet the potential likelihood of errors must be weighed against the potential cost savings from weeding out additional fraud, a savings that could potentially find itself in the hands of students like us.

The Department of Education should be careful with its new data-mining program. Many will be watching closely, some looking for an excuse to cry foul.

But, on the whole, such information is increasingly necessary to modernize our databases and keep money from slipping through the cracks.