There’s never a good time for the head of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators to get caught for fraud, but with Obama’s plan to reform education financing beginning the long crawl through Congress, there couldn’t be a worse time.  Philip Day, the head of NASFAA, was recently charged with 8 felony counts.

The laundering seems mildly forgivable at first; most of the funds went towards local and state campaigns to benefit the state’s community college, his among them.  But the funding could have gone to better use at the institution itself, rather than attempting to influence public opinion.  Funds also went directly to reelection campaigns for local politicians.

And then there’s the “hidden account”:

An additional $45,000 in Pepsi payments to the college was allegedly diverted to what the district attorney called a “hidden account” in the college’s foundation. Day is charged with using these funds, according to the district attorney, “for expenses that could not, or were unlikely to be, reimbursed by City College, such as a City Club membership for himself, parking tickets, and alcoholic beverages at functions.”

It’s sad to see a man known for his work on behalf of low-income students be involved in the kind of fraud that hurt them.  For shame.

Fraud in financial aid offices has been commonplace until crackdown brought the various higher ed scandals into daylight in 2007.  Since then, the frequency of scandals has gone down, but still seem to be occurring.  Day is only one of many who refuse to learn the lesson.

But not all financial aid officers are corrupt: an employee at Rio Salado’s financial aid office noticed odd similarities in handwriting on financial aid applications, blowing the whistle on a massive scam.  65 were indicted after attempting to act as “straw students” in order to steal federal funds.  We applaud this brave whistleblower and wish more officers would increase their vigilance in watching for fraud, both outside the school and inside the department.