A bipartisan group of six Congressional lawmakers asked Wednesday the Government Accountability Office to reexamine its report on the for-profit education industry. The agency sent undercover applicants to some of these schools. The undercover investigators claim to have been misled on costs, job placement and future earnings.
In a letter to GAO comptroller Gene Dodaro, California Rep. Darrell Issa lectured the congressional watchdog on its charge to provide objective, factual and nonideological reports. In this instance, the incoming chairman of the House oversight committee said, “GAO has not met its own high standards.”
After releasing in August a sensational report on the alleged abuses within the career college community, GAO acknowledged earlier this month it had heavily revised portions of its findings, changing wrongfully attributed comments and lessening its charges of deception.
Issa wants to know if the GAO has investigated the failings in its initial report and if its office of general counsel had concluded the revised report accurately reflects the analysis contained therein.
A comparison of the modified and original versions revealed at least 13 key passages of the report had been altered.
One vignette originally read the “admissions representative did not disclose the graduate rate after being directly asked.” It was later modified to say “the college’s Web site did not provide the graduation rate.”
Another original sketch said recruitment officials told would-be students they “should take out” the maximum amount of federal student loans. The same section was amended to say the official told students they “could” pursue the maximum amount of federal loans.
In one of the more radical revisions, on the matter of post-graduation earnings, the original report said that one admissions official told an applicant “he could earn up to $100 an hour as a massage therapist,” even though a majority of those in the field earn under or near $34 an hour. The edited report later showed the official indicated to the applicant “that he could earn up to $30 an hour as a massage therapist,” noting still that some program instructors fetch $150-200 an hour.
Of additional interest to the presumptive GOP oversight chairman is GAO’s procedures for revising a previously issued report.
GAO unveiled its for-profit report on August 4, 2010, at a politicized hearing by Senator Tom Harkin. The agency’s modified report, however, was released with little fanfare on November 30, 2010: Not so much as a press release was posted to GAO’s website, and the agency failed to announce its revision until a full week later.
Issa’s fellow signatories include Republican Reps. John Kline and Brett Guthrie and Democratic Reps. Alcee Hastings, Carolyn McCarthy and Glenn Thompson.
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