برچسب: financial

Pennsylvania’s Largest CyberCharter Refuses to Make Its Financial Data Public

Cybercharters have a terrible track record. They have registered many financial scandals. Some of their leaders have gone to jail for embezzlement and fraud. The biggest fraud in the nation was perpetrated by a cybercharter chain in California that collected $80-200 million from the state without providing the services that were advertised. The biggest academic evaluation of cybercharters concluded that their students don’t gain ground; in fact, they lose ground compared to their peers in public schools or in brick-and-mortar charter schools.

Pennsylvania is the jackpot for online charter operators. The rules are minimal as is accountability for results.

Here is the latest, by Oliver Morrison at PennLive.com:

Commonwealth Charter Academy, Pa’s largest cyber charter school, has stopped providing detailed financial statements to the school’s board of trustees for their monthly board meetings, ending a transparency policy that has been in place at the school for more than a decade.

Those reports have typically included detailed information about hundreds of specific transactions, including the names of individual businesses and the amount of money spent the previous month. CCA previously provided these financial statements upon request to members of the public who attended its board meetings, along with the trustees.

The reports will still be available to board members but the public will now have to file a records request for the reports, according to Tim Eller, a spokesperson for CCA. Eller said the change was made to enhance the school’s cybersecurity.

During the board’s Wednesday meeting, Faith Russo, the school’s chief business officer, announced CCA was providing the board with a new report that would be more limited in scope.

“So this basically summarizes the information that we have already previously provided to you,” Russo said.

The new report includes only seven lines of detail about the total amount spent for payroll, general fund cash disbursements, employee retirement, employer paid health insurance, total capital project disbursements, general fund cash transfers and capital fund cash transfers.

In June, by contrast, CCA provided details of more than 1,000 individual financial transactions. The report provided the check number, the names of the vendors, the date of the purchases and the amount of the transactions. The largest single recipients of payments in June were Phillips Managed Support Services, $3.1 million, and Quandel Construction, $1.7 million. Although many of the transactions were for thousands of dollars, some of the transactions were for small amounts, such as a $46 payment to a fertilizer company and a $70 payment to an IT security company.

The detailed report redacted the names of around 130 parents of students who receive $550 per month to serve as “family mentors.” Family mentors serve as a personal concierge to help new students adapt to CCA in their first year. The report also redacted the names of dozens of parents who received a $300 reimbursement for students who participated in extracurricular activities.

Eller, CCA’s spokesperson, said the school has received malicious phishing attempts from scammers who have impersonated vendors that are listed on the school’s detailed financial reports. The financials reports will now be made available to board members on a more secure platform, Eller said.

“This change enhances cybersecurity and safeguards the school’s sensitive financial information against potential cyber and financial threats,” Eller said.

The reports will no longer be available to the public at the start of each board meeting, Eller said, because the school needs more time to redact the reports than it did in years past because the school has grown so large and its financial reports more complicated. Eller doesn’t believe the school has ever made a mistake in redacting its previous reports but said the school will need more time to do this in the future.

The detailed financial reports in the board packets also previously included information about large fund transfers between the school’s bank accounts. In June the school made 17 transfers of more than $23 million between its various general fund and capital accounts. For August, CCA only listed the total amount transferred. This change comes in the first full board meeting after PennLive reported that CCA’s CEO, Tom Longenecker, received more than $700,000 in compensation for serving as a director of CCA’s primary bank–Orrstown Bank, which earns money off of CCA’s deposits.

The decreased transparency comes as lawmakers in Harrisburg have been debating changes to how cyber charter schools are regulated. The Democratically controlled House passed a number of reforms in June including the establishment of a special council that would help set transparency requirements for cyber charter schools. The House’s reforms have yet to be taken up by the Republican-controlled Senate and it’s unclear if any reforms are part of the active budget negotiations.

Russo said during Wednesday’s meeting that CCA will still provide its trustees with a copy of the detailed financial report but not as part of the packet it makes readily available to the public.

“The detail has been provided to the board prior to this meeting,” Russo said. “So you still received the laundry list of all the disbursements, but this is a more summarized version for the board packet.”

When PennLive requested a copy of the detailed report that was provided to trustees before the meetings, CCA’s board secretary said PennLive would now have to seek the information through a public records request, a process that often takes a month or longer. PennLive filed a public records request for the information immediately but did not receive the records before publication.

The school’s detailed financial report has been provided in board packets since at least December of 2013–the oldest board packet in PennLive’s possession.

Susan Spicka, the executive director of Education Voters of PA, has used CCA’s detailed financial records in the past to raise questions about the school’s spending practices.

“This illustrates how Harrisburg allows cyber charter schools to play by their own rules,” Spicka said. “The time is now for Senate Republicans to step up and demand accountability from the cyber charter industry. They have a responsibility to ensure that all public schools are transparent in how they spend Pennsylvanians’ property tax dollars.”

Source link

18/08/2025
We need all hands on deck to ensure students get the financial aid they need for college

Parent Raul Zuniga and his daughter Sandy, a senior at La Habra High in Orange County, receive help with financial aid forms from counselor Rosa Sanchez at a “Cash for College” workshop.

FERMIN LEAL/EDSOURCE TODAY

California is better off when more people have education and training to power our economy and support thriving communities. Financial aid that reduces or fully covers the cost of college or job training is an investment that benefits all of us.

About $550 million in federal and state aid goes unused annually when thousands of eligible California students miss out on financial aid. Many are unaware of financial aid, don’t know how to apply or if they qualify, or fear sharing personal information because of their immigration status.

A new law is helping to ensure that financial aid is not left on the table. Schools must help all high school seniors complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid or California Dream Act Application unless the student formally opts out. Students submit one of these applications, depending on their residential status, to access the grants, scholarships, work-study opportunities, student loans and other forms of aid available to help finance postsecondary education or training.

Providing support for all students as they complete financial aid applications is an equity-driven game changer. This policy encourages students to plan for and attend college or job training programs and ensures that all students and families can make informed plans and decisions about their life after high school.

Achieving universal participation in this student-centered systemic approach to financial aid requires planning and collaboration among K-12 school leaders, counselors, educators, student groups and community organizations. California’s All in for FAFSA/CA Dream Act campaign supports K-12 education partners as they work to achieve universal FAFSA/CADAA completion. Local progress can be tracked on the state’s Race to Submit dashboard. The data can help target assistance for students who may need extra support and encouragement to complete and submit a financial aid application. It also helps us to identify, learn from and share best practices with schools and districts across the state.

Since universal participation was required, the number of California students applying for financial aid increased significantly. More than 60% of California’s high school seniors submitted financial aid applications by March 2, the deadline for students planning to attend a four-year college. By Sept. 5, the deadline for students heading to community college, the total FAFSA or CADAA completion rate for the class of 2023 climbed to nearly 75%. More than 24,000 financial aid applications were completed this year compared with the same time a year ago.

The progress achieved with California’s universal financial aid requirement is due to the hard work of K-12 district leaders, high school principals, counselors and teachers, California Student Opportunity and Access Program counselors, Cash for College workshop coordinators, community-based organizations, and students and their families. They went all in to help more high school students than ever complete financial aid applications.

More resources and materials on the new FAFSA form can be found here.

In a few months, the U.S. Department of Education will release a revised federal aid application called the Better FAFSA. The good news is that the redesigned application will be easier to complete. The bad news is that the Better FAFSA application window will open two months later than in a typical year. This compressed timeline could most disadvantage students and families who need greater support to complete the aid application — and who have the most to gain from filling out the form.

We will need all hands on deck at the state, district and high school levels to keep making progress and ensure that students don’t lose ground in this inaugural year of the Better FAFSA. The California Student Aid Commission will continue to support K-12 districts and high schools as they work to meet the universal FAFSA or CADAA requirement. We have confidence that with planning, collaboration with partners, clear communication and purpose, California can ensure that all high school seniors complete the FAFSA or CADAA, and California’s vision of increasing access to higher education for all students will become a reality.

•••

Catalina Cifuentes is chair and Marlene Garcia is executive director of the California Student Aid Commission.

The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the authors. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.

Source link

14/07/2025
As feds plan new measures to prevent financial aid fraud, colleges hope real students still enroll
The 2025-26 FAFSA form.

Credit: Andrew Reed
Top Takeaways

California’s community colleges have dispersed $14 million and likely much more in financial aid to fraudsters.

The U.S. Department of Education says colleges must verify the identities of more students this summer. In the fall, it plans to launch permanent screening.

Colleges worry that the new measures could burden students too much and prevent some from enrolling.
California colleges are worried that new federal measures seeking to crack down on financial aid fraud, which has stolen millions in grants, could result in the unintended consequence of fewer legitimate students enrolling.

At California’s community colleges, where the fraud has been most pronounced in the state, financial aid officials hope the new steps will strike a balance between deterring bad actors while also minimizing the burden on real students. Some students may find taking extra steps to prove their identity to be an extra barrier to enrolling, possibly scaring them off, administrators say.

“How do we do fraud mitigation, but also still have students apply? The more barriers, the harder we make it to get in our systems, the less people will come,” said Tina Vasconcellos, associate vice chancellor of educational services at the Peralta Community College District. “It’s great the federal government wants to help us and cut down on fraud, but at the same time, is it going to create another hoop for our students to jump through to get to us in the first place?”

The U.S. Department of Education announced last month it will roll out new ways to verify the identities of students who apply for aid. Most of the fraud has tapped federal aid, in the form of Pell Grants intended for low-income students, but some state and local aid has also been stolen in California and elsewhere.

The federal department said it would require colleges this summer to verify the identities of additional first-time applicants. That will apply to about 125,000 students in total nationwide, but the department didn’t say how that will be split among the colleges. To get verified, students will have to show government-issued identification such as a passport or driver’s license. If the college determines that a student is unable to show the identification in person, the student can be given the option to do so on a video call.

“Although we recognize that these verification selections could be challenging for some institutions and students, it is a critically important and targeted step toward preventing fraud,” the department wrote in an announcement.

The additional verification for the summer term is only a temporary solution before the department implements a permanent screening process for every financial aid applicant for the upcoming fall term.

Officials have not said what that process will entail in the fall. Among the possibilities, college officials speculate that requiring more students to come in person to prove they are real, which could be potentially challenging for students who live far away and take entire course loads online.

Community colleges have been plagued by financial aid scammers who target those institutions because they are open-access and offer many classes fully online. That makes it much easier to enroll in classes online and be eligible for aid. At least $14 million in aid, and likely much more, has been dispersed to fraudsters at California community colleges since 2021.

It’s also easier to defraud community colleges than more expensive universities because tuition is so low or otherwise covered, and much of the grants go directly to students for living costs, rather than to the colleges for tuition.

“We don’t know what the plan is for the fall,” said Jill Desjean, the director of policy analysis at the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. Ideally, Desjean said, the process would be automated so that additional steps aren’t required of students or staff. “There’s just a limit to what the schools can do.”

Pretending to be legitimate students, fraudsters start by applying for admission online. Some of them are caught there, but others successfully get admitted and enroll in classes. At that point, they can request financial aid, which, if they’re successful, gets distributed to personal bank accounts via direct deposit.

Beyond stealing aid, the scams have additional consequences for real students. Since each course has a finite number of seats, genuine students are sometimes left on waiting lists and can’t enroll because fraudsters are taking up the available seats.

In a statement when the new measures were announced, U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said the department “has a responsibility to act” because fraud is “taking aid away from eligible students, disrupting the operations of colleges, and ripping off taxpayers.”

Jasmine Ruys, vice president of student services at College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, acknowledged that “it’s our job to make sure that fraud is not happening and that we’re good stewards of taxpayer money.”

She added, though, that the college strives to balance that responsibility with not asking too much of students.

“Some students work during the day, so they might have to take time off work to be able to come over to us to verify,” Ruys added. “So we try really hard not to put any kind of barriers up for a student.”

Even being asked to upload additional documents online could be difficult for some students, said Vasconcellos of the Peralta district, which serves Oakland and the rest of northern Alameda County.

“We still have a digital divide. There are students within our community who have less access to all aspects of technology,” she said. “A lot of our students are actually still using their phones to take their classes. So what I’d be concerned about is if the technology on the receiving end isn’t working and if it’s not easy to upload your ID, or whatever it is that they’re asking for, it’s going to potentially be a barrier.”

Vasconcellos and Ruys both said they’re hopeful that whatever the department implements this fall will be something that doesn’t require much extra from students.

One possible solution, Ruys said, would be to add something at the beginning of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), so the verification happens quickly rather than when students are getting ready to start their classes. That could be something similar to ID.me, an online identity verification platform already being used by many community colleges.

It’s not clear, however, whether the department is considering that option.

“Whatever it is, we’re going to abide by all laws,” Ruys said. “We just hope that it doesn’t limit our students from being able to enroll and attend college.”
Source link
03/07/2025
Colleges and universities must step up to counteract financial aid form delays

California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

Credit: Ashley Bolter / EdSource

In any given year, planning for higher education and applying for financial aid is a complicated, overwhelming and time-consuming process for families.

This year, amid an extensive list of changes to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, application and processing delays, and the growing list of glitches and issues with the application, submitting the FAFSA by the deadline for priority admission to California state universities may seem like an impossible task.

Parents and families that our organization has worked with and surveyed in this application cycle are frustrated. And, with so much at stake for their students, they want to know: “Given all the delays with the FAFSA, will students have a longer time to decide which school to go to next year?”

We think they should.

The experiences of the families we connected with are consistent with what we are seeing nationwide. A National College Attainment Network analysis found that FAFSA submissions for the class of 2024 lag behind last year’s senior class by 42%. Even if families are able to submit an application, institutions won’t be able to create financial aid packages until early April, six weeks later than previously announced, and four months later than is typical.

These delays are more than an inconvenience.

Delays and technical issues with the application will have the most significant impact on the students who need financial aid the most. Students of color, students from mixed-status families, first-generation college students, students experiencing homelessness, and students in the foster care system are more likely to experience difficulty accessing financial aid, or completing their applications at all. Last week, the U.S. Department of Education announced a resolution to a problem that was halting the application process for students with parents without a social security number, giving those students less than three weeks to submit their applications.

Policymakers and advocates across the country have offered various proposals to ensure that students and families have ample time to make an informed decision about higher education. Over 100 members of Congress urged Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona to provide clarity and “minimize the potential impact” of the issues with the FAFSA.

California state legislators are currently debating a one-month extension for state financial aid. The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association released recommendations for states given the delay in Institutional Student Information Records. The National College Attainment Network and nine other organizations have called for the extension of university commitment and scholarship deadlines.

The U.S. Department of Education recently announced it would relax requirements for colleges and universities in order to allow more time for getting financial aid packages to families. However, this alone is not enough to ensure that students across the country have access to the money they need to attend college.

Institutions of higher education must be proactive and support students and families to access the financial aid they deserve. Colleges and universities should delay commitment and scholarship deadlines to June 1 to allow families enough time to compare financial aid packages and decide which university is right for them.

The FAFSA Simplification Act was designed to make financial aid more accessible to students across the country. Let’s not penalize the students and families who are essentially beta testers this year. We must do all we can to remove as many obstacles as possible for students and keep our promise of simplifying the financial aid process for this class and every class to follow.

•••

Darcel Sanders is CEO of GO Public Schools, a nonprofit organization working with families to advocate for the equitable public education of underserved students in California. She previously served as legislative director for state Sen. Carol Liu and earlier worked as a middle school teacher in Oakland.

The opinions in this commentary are those of the author. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.

Source link

08/06/2025
Waiting for financial aid offers creates problems for California students

Sierra Community College in Rocklin.

Credit: Sierra College / Flickr

This summer was filled with stress for Leslie Valdovinos as she awaited her financial aid offer letter for her fourth year at California State University, Dominguez Hills.

“I don’t have a backup plan in case I can’t rely on financial aid,” Valdovinos said. “Financial aid is the only plan that I have.”

Leslie Valdovinos

Widespread problems with the revamped Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) caused unprecedented difficulties with the application resulting in delays in college decisions and making it particularly hard for the many “mixed-status” students in California — students who have at least one parent without a Social Security number — to complete the form. Students are still experiencing delays in getting their financial aid information.

“It’s very stressful because tuition is going up, and I’m not sure how my financial situation is going to look like for this school year,” Valdovinos said.

Valdovinos finally received her financial aid offer letter on Aug. 8, but many are still waiting. As of May, 28% of students nationwide had not received their financial aid offer, according to a survey done by the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.

Some students have been able to get scholarships to help cover the costs of school. Azul Hernandez, an incoming freshman at California State University, San Bernardino has gotten help from local scholarships.

“Right now, I am able to cover my tuition for this year through local scholarships that I was awarded but am still fighting to get aid to help cover the years to come and other fees like books,” Hernandez said.

California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB) has started offering a $4,000 “backup” scholarship to support low-income students whose financial aid is delayed. The money is aimed at low-income California residents.

“This initiative comes as a response to the challenges posed by FAFSA delays, with CSUMB committing to support its community by ensuring no student is left behind due to procedural setbacks. The scholarship is designed to provide immediate relief to students who are still awaiting federal and state aid decisions,” said a notice announcing the program.

While some students might be able to make it through the school year without financial aid, many will not be able to continue with school if they do not get their financial aid offer in time.

Jonathan Ramirez is supposed to start his first year at Victor Valley College in a few weeks but has not yet received his financial aid letter.

“I’m kind of worried because, you know, I don’t really have that much money, and I kind of want that money because I want to keep going to college and get a career and stuff. Without (financial aid) I don’t think I’ll be able to,” Ramirez said.

If he doesn’t receive his financial aid and has to drop out of school, Ramirez said he plans on going to a trade school or start working to save up money.

With the decline of completed FAFSA forms across the state, Ashish Vaidya, president and CEO of Growing Inland Achievement, is concerned that fewer students will be able to attend college. Through Aug. 2, 49% or 298,026 members of the Class of 2024 completed an application. That’s 30, 550 fewer than 2023.

Vaidya described this year’s rollout of the FAFSA as having “a catastrophic impact on the students, especially in the Inland Empire,” referring to a feared drop in the number of students who would attend college.

Growing Inland Achievement (GIA) is a nonprofit organization working toward education and economic equity in the Inland Empire, which is made up of Riverside and San Bernardino counties. GIA supports students through the financial aid process with workshops, step-by-step guides and digital resources to help students be successful.

“This is an all-hands-on-deck sort of approach,” Vaidya said.

Other organizations, such as uAspire, a nonprofit that focuses on supporting students with the financial aid process, work with students directly with free one-on-one advice and financial aid workshops.

Valdovinos took advantage of the workshops and tutorials provided by her school, though she found the one-on-one attention the most helpful because it was so personalized.

“(The tutorials) gave a nice guideline of what was going on, but I think because me and my brother’s and my sister’s applications were different, it was very frustrating because it didn’t really have all of our personal situations accounted for,” she said.

Valdovinos said she hopes next year’s application will include “more detailed and accessible explanations for each section of the FAFSA, including examples and FAQs of all the possible scenarios that may come up,” which she said would help reduce confusion.

Typically, as has been the process for decades, high school seniors and community college transfer students would begin completing the FAFSA in October to meet California’s March priority deadline for access to state aid like the Cal Grant. During that period, those students would submit applications to the colleges and universities that they’re seeking admission to, so they would have their offer letters by early spring. The traditional timing allowed financial aid offices to send details about grants, loans and scholarships to students around March and April, in time for them to make a decision on the college they plan to attend in the fall.

But this year’s repeated FAFSA disruptions means colleges haven’t been able to send out aid awards, either because students have had trouble applying, the department has miscalculated some students’ aid, or colleges haven’t received any aid information from the department. Each award letter sent by colleges to their admitted students that complete a financial aid application is customized with a combination of federal, state and institutional grants, loans and scholarships.

On Aug. 7, the Department of Education announced that the 2024-25 FAFSA will once again be delayed as the Federal Student Aid office works to identify and correct problems in the form. The new form will have a phased rollout, opening on Oct. 1 for testing, then launching on Dec. 1 with full functionality, “including submission and back-end processing at the same time.”

“When they roll out the new FAFSA for the following year, you know, it will be a much improved process if you don’t have the glitches and the hiccups that we faced this past year,” Vaidya said. “So we’re hopeful about that; however, we’re not going to rest on our laurels.”

GIA plans to amp up efforts this coming year to reach more students and get out the message that “college is for everyone.”

U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona promised changes for next year’s FAFSA.

“Following a challenging 2024-25 FAFSA cycle, the Department listened carefully to the input of students, families, and higher education institutions, made substantial changes to leadership and operations at Federal Student Aid, and is taking a new approach this year that will significantly improve the FAFSA experience,” he said.

Ashley Bolter, a recent graduate of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, is a member of EdSource’s California Student Journalism Corps.

Source link

17/05/2025
Financial Times: Bill Gates Slams Elon Musk

Bill Gates is one of the few billionaires and power players who have stood up to the South African-born bully, Elon Musk.

I’ve had my differences with Gates over his disastrous intrusions into “reforming” education. First, he thought that small schools were “the answer,” and small schools sprouted in many cities while beloved high schools with multiple pathways to graduation were closed. He climbed aboard the charter idea, funding many charters and underwriting the propagandistic charter-pushing film “Waiting for Superman,” in which every charter does its own thing.

Then he decided that “the answer” was standardization, and he bought and paid for the Common Core standards and urged alignment with tests, textbooks, and teacher training. Simultaneously, he funded districts to evaluate teachers by the rise or fall of student scores, and Arne Duncan made that practice a key element of his $5 billion Race to the Top. None of those data-based, data-driven policies worked. They were correct on paper but failed in reality.

Happily, he has turned his attention to problems where he can make a real difference: saving lives in impoverished nations.

He was appalled when Musk, his fellow billionaire, peremptorily shut down USAID. And he is not afraid of Musk or Trump.

The UK Financial Times interviewed Gates:

Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates ratcheted up his feud with Elon Musk, accusing the world’s richest man of “killing the world’s poorest children” through what he said were misguided cuts to US development assistance.

Gates, who is announcing a plan to accelerate his philanthropic giving over the next 20 years and close down the Gates Foundation altogether in 2045, said in an interview that the Tesla chief had acted through ignorance.

In February, Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) in effect shut down the US Agency for International Development, the main conduit for US aid, saying it was “time for it to die”.

The co-founder of Microsoft, and once the world’s richest man himself, said the abruptness of the cuts had left life-saving food and medicines expiring in warehouses and could cause the resurgence of diseases such as measles, HIV and polio.

“The picture of the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children is not a pretty one,” he told the Financial Times.

Gates said Musk had cancelled grants to a hospital in Gaza Province, Mozambique, that prevents women transmitting HIV to their babies, in the mistaken belief that the US was supplying condoms to Hamas in Gaza in the Middle East. “I’d love for him to go in and meet the children that have now been infected with HIV because he cut that money,” he said.

Gates, 69, on Thursday announced plans to spend virtually his entire fortune over the next 20 years, during which time he estimates his foundation will spend more than $200bn on global health, development and education against $100bn over the previous 25 years. The Gates Foundation will close its doors in 2045, decades earlier than previously envisaged.

Good for you, Bill!

Source link

12/05/2025
West Contra Costa makes progress toward financial health, but big challenges remain
West Contra Costa Unified’s Stege Elementary School in Richmond. (File photo 2019)

Credit: Andrew Reed / EdSource
Top Takeaways

West Contra Costa Unified gets out from under a cloud of possible insolvency by coming up with a budget approved by the County Office of Education, which rated it “positive.”

Positive certification is conditioned on the district implementing cuts and sending layoff notices by May 15 as agreed to by the elected school board in February.

The district still faces budget challenges, including negotiating a new contract with its teachers and eliminating a structural deficit in three years after it has spent all the funds in a special reserve.
The West Contra Costa Unified District has made substantial financial progress by balancing its budget and averting possible insolvency.

Last week, the Contra Costa County Office of Education notified the district that it approved a “positive certification” in the latest version of its budget for the 2024-26 school years, the second time it has done that this year.

Positive certification means the county office concurs with the district that it can meet its financial obligations during the current school year and the next two years, but only if it follows through on plans to cut another $13 million over the next two years.

“If they do everything they say they’re going to do and keep going down the path that they submitted to us, they should be OK,” said Contra Costa County Superintendent of Schools Lynn Mackey.

The county office’s concurrence came as a relief to district officials. Interim Superintendent Kim Moses, the district’s business manager until last year, described the positive certification as “great news.”

“We are able to say that we can meet our obligations over the next three years with the changes that we’ve made,” she said. “And that is something to celebrate.”

The latest development for the 25,000-student district in the San Francisco Bay Area, which includes the city of Richmond, offers lessons for other California districts experiencing financial difficulties.

No. 1 among them: School boards have to make hard decisions to cut budgets and reduce the number of employees proportionate to their revenues, said Michael Fine, CEO of the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team (FCMAT), a state-funded agency that helps school districts get out of financial difficulties.

For several years, the county office of education had concluded that the district was no longer “a going concern” based on its shaky finances. And as recently as last year, FCMAT rated the district as at a high risk of insolvency.

To get to the positive rating, the district cut $19.7 million from its budget this year, and its board voted in February to cut another $13 million over the next two years.
Going Deeper

Under state oversight regulations, a school district’s financial situation can fall into three categories:

A positive certification means the school district has the resources to meet its financial obligations to get through the current school year,and two subsequent ones.

A qualified certification means that the district may not to meet its financial obligations in the current school year, or the next two years.

A negative certification is the most dire category: a district will be unable to meet its financial obligation in the current year or subsequent school year.
West Contra Costa’s positive rating is especially good news because, in 1991, the district became the first in California to get an emergency loan from the state, which took two decades to pay off.

But the district still faces substantial challenges. In its letter to Moses last Thursday, Daniela Parasidis, the county’s deputy superintendent for business services, said its approval of the district’s positive certification “comes with significant caution.”

“The district must remain vigilant and continue the implementation of its solvency plan to ensure long-term financial stability,” she wrote.

She also pointed to potential hazards that could affect the district’s finances, which underscore the multiple pressure points school districts face. In West Contra Costa, these include the impact of declining enrollment, increased absenteeism due to fears around immigration enforcement, expiring parcel tax revenue, and possible loss of federal funding cuts by the Trump administration.

County officials say maintaining the district’s positive certification hinges on it doing two things: sending out layoff notices as the board voted to do in February by May 15, the deadline specified by state law, as well as adopting a budget for the coming school year by June 30.

One unknown is that the district is in the final stages of prolonged contract negotiations with unions representing all its staff, including its teachers union, which is demanding a pay increase and other compensation-related changes, and improved health benefits. The teachers’ contract expires June 30.

However, there is deep disagreement between the district and its unions over the severity of the district’s financial difficulties. Francisco Ortiz, the president of United Teachers of Richmond, said the district routinely “underprojects revenue and overprojects expenditures.” As for the cuts planned for the next two years, Ortiz said, “We feel that none of these cuts are necessary.” He said the district needs to, instead, “reprioritize how they’re actually spending their funds.”

“We deeply value our educators and agree they work hard and deserve to be fairly compensated,” Moses wrote in an online message last week. “Our challenge is not about disagreement, but about how we responsibly meet this need while ensuring our district remains fiscally sound.”

Another pitfall is that, despite making significant budget cuts, the district is still operating with a structural deficit, which it is closing by drawing on one-time reserve funds.

Those are so-called “special reserves” called Fund 17, valued at over $37 million at the beginning of the school year.

West Contra Costa was able to accumulate these special reserves at least in part because when it got its state bailout loan decades ago, the state required the district to maintain reserves of 6%, double the normally required amount, Moses said.

To balance its books, the district is drawing down $11.5 million of its Fund 17 reserves this year, another $20.25 million next year, and $6.2 million the following year, fully depleting that reserve. It will still have the 3% minimum reserve required by the state, which amounts to about $15 million.

John Gray, CEO of School Services of California, the largest school consulting firm in the state, says it is quite acceptable for a district to use its Fund 17 reserves to get through a fiscal crisis.

But, he says, it means that “there will be a reckoning in three years” when all those funds are spent. “If you spend it (the Fund 17 reserve) all the way down,” he said, “you’re not going to have a place to grab money, and you’re going to have to make additional cuts.”

Interim Superintendent Moses hopes that over the next two years, the district will be able to “align expenditures with our revenue so that we will no longer have a structural deficit, and we’ll begin to build back up that reserve for economic uncertainties.”

She said, “Any responsible, budget-minded person is going to make sure they save something for hard times.”
Source link
06/05/2025
Financial aid fraud is growing at California’s community colleges

The Foothill-De Anza Community College District is one of many across the state trying to combat bad actors who enroll to steal financial aid. The district, which includes Foothill College, shown above, is now using artificial intelligence to sniff our scammers.

Credit: Barbara Kinney

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, California’s community colleges have been plagued by scammers who pose as students and enroll to steal financial aid — and now it’s getting even worse.

The state’s 116-college system has lost more than $7.5 million to financial aid fraud this year, state data shows. That’s already much higher than the colleges reported losing all of last year. Most of it is federal aid, in the form of Pell Grants intended for low-income students.

Colleges have increased their efforts to detect and deter the fraud through both more human interaction and automated detection. Officials believe they are getting better at doing so, but the increasing losses show that the college system is still vulnerable to scammers, who are often part of sophisticated crime rings, some overseas.

Community colleges have long been susceptible to fraud, since they are generally open access and usually don’t deny admission to students who meet basic requirements as the more selective University of California and California State University do. The problem was made worse by the Covid-19 pandemic. The shift to remote instruction “created fertile ground” for fraudsters, said Paul Feist, a spokesperson for the chancellor’s office overseeing California’s community colleges. The scammers wanted to get their hands on the nearly $2 billion in federal stimulus dollars available for emergency student aid available across the colleges.

That stimulus aid is now depleted, but the fraudsters aren’t slowing down, according to the data EdSource obtained through a public records request. In 2024, through September, community colleges in California reported disbursing more than $7.6 million in aid that they later wrote off as fraud. The data was provided to EdSource in late October, but the system did not yet have October data available.

The $7.6 million is up from about $4.4 million that was reported lost all of last year. And that was much larger than the $2.1 million that was reported lost between September 2021 and the end of 2022. September 2021 is when the state chancellor’s office asked colleges to begin reporting monthly about application, enrollment and financial aid fraud. EdSource requested those reports via the state’s Public Records Act. In response, the state shared data on the amount of fraud reported each month but redacted the names of individual colleges.

Some officials attribute the latest spike in fraudulent activity to the Department of Education rolling back verification rules for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), requiring colleges to verify fewer applications. Fraudsters may have seen those changes and sensed an opportunity to get their hands on aid.

Pretending to be legitimate students, the fraudsters apply online for admission. Some frauds are caught there, but those who successfully get admitted and enroll in classes can request financial aid, which colleges often distribute to personal bank accounts via direct deposit.

Some colleges, as a result, are going back to the old-fashioned method of requiring students to show up in person and prove they are real before they can become eligible for aid. Others, acknowledging the possibility of human error, are also turning to automated methods, including using artificial intelligence to detect suspicious applicants.

It is also likely that the colleges are more consistently reporting the fraud. When the chancellor’s office first began asking the colleges to report monthly, there was only “modest participation,” a chancellor’s office official said in a 2022 memo. Now, colleges are reporting at higher rates, though some have still not submitted their reports for months. College officials also believe they have improved at detecting fraud over the past three years.

Feist said it can take more than six months from when a scammer applies online for colleges “to detect, investigate and confirm” the fraud. He added that he expects the college system to have better information about the scope of the fraud by the end of this year.

The scams can have consequences for actual students. With a finite number of seats for each course, real students are often left on waiting lists and unable to enroll in necessary classes because fraudsters are taking up space.

For the colleges, combating the fraud is a never-ending battle. They have to constantly adapt to the fraudsters, who themselves evolve and come up with new tactics.

“This past year, essentially, we would think we’re a step ahead and then the next day we would be a step behind. We were always playing cat-and-mouse,” said Nicole Albo-Lopez, vice chancellor of educational programs for the Los Angeles Community College District.

Fraud going up

In total, colleges since fall 2021 have reported distributing $14.2 million in financial aid that they wrote off as fraud. Federal aid has accounted for the majority of that, but colleges have also distributed more than $3 million in state and local aid to the scammers.

Feist noted that is a small percentage — less than 1% — of the total aid the colleges have distributed to students in that time.

The fraud initially spiked in 2021, when the colleges had billions of dollars available in emergency financial aid grants for students. Between March 2020 and March 2021, the federal government passed three pandemic relief bills and awarded California’s community colleges $4.4 billion, of which $1.8 billion was allocated for emergency grants.

The financial aid office at East Los Angeles College in Monterey Park.

Distribution of emergency grants ended in 2023, but the fraud did not. Some colleges have reported eye-popping losses of federal aid, leading to the $7.6 million the system has lost so far this year.

One college, its name redacted in the data shared with EdSource, reported losing $405,395 in April, $344,296 in July and $119,262 in May. Another college lost $193,286 in April and $76,303 in June. When colleges write off aid distributions as fraud, it’s typically because the recipient stops attending classes altogether after receiving the aid.

At the same time, dozens of colleges did not report fraud numbers for at least one month this year, raising the possibility that the actual amount of aid lost to fraud is even higher than what has been reported.

Some officials theorized that the federal government’s relaxed FAFSA verification requirements could be playing a role. Typically, about a quarter of FAFSA applications are selected for verification, which involves the colleges verifying the information a student reports on their application. Under the new rules, colleges are now required to verify a much lower share of FAFSA applications — even lower than during the pandemic, when rules were also relaxed, according to the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.

The changes were implemented to help colleges more quickly process aid applications, particularly after the FAFSA delays that plagued colleges and students last academic year.

Victor DeVore, the dean of student services at the San Diego Community College District, said it is likely that the relaxed FAFSA verification led to more scams.

“It’s letting people know that, ‘Oh look, they’re relaxing their verification rules, so now I have a better chance of trying to get some aid fraudulently,’” he said.

At the same time, colleges have also been have getting better at identifying the fraud.

This year, about 25% of applications have been flagged as possible fraud, up from 20% last year. “Part of the reason is that our systems are becoming more effective at detecting fraud, even as the attempts become more sophisticated,” Feist said.

‘Nobody’s trained in this’

There are three stages of fraud: Application fraud, when scammers try to get admitted to the college; enrollment fraud, when they attempt to get a spot in a class; and financial aid fraud, when they successfully receive aid after enrolling.

Fraudsters often target classes with no prerequisites, since those are easier to access, said Tina Vasconcellos, vice chancellor of the Peralta Community College District, which is based in Oakland and has four colleges in Alameda County.

Spencer O’Bosky, a computer science major at Los Angeles Pierce College, tried several times in the spring to enroll in online math classes, only to see them fill up shortly after they opened for registrations.

When he eventually was able to enroll in one, some of the other students listed on the course roster didn’t turn in any work and were dropped as suspected scammers.

“I always thought I was the only one experiencing this, but then I heard about it happening a lot,” O’Bosky said. “I think it’s terrible. It stops people from being able to sign up for these classes.”

To keep the fraudsters out, several college officials said they have turned to a simple yet effective tactic. When a student is flagged as suspicious, staff ask them to either come to campus in person or join a video meeting to prove they are a legitimate student.

But some still slip through the cracks, especially as scammers get more sophisticated.

“Nobody’s trained in this. We have humans doing this all over the state, all over every state trying to figure out how to mitigate this issue that nobody’s trained for,” Vasconcellos, the Peralta vice chancellor, said.

To reduce human error, colleges have looked for ways to automate fraud detection.

The state chancellor’s office last year piloted a new ID proofing system, working with the online platform ID.me to verify identities of applicants. Feist said the verification system “has been effective in helping to reduce the amount of fraud and help mitigate local workloads” but added that “bad actors continue to shift their attacks.”

Some fraudsters now steal identities and submit the stolen but legitimate information — like a real address and real forms of identification — when applying, said Jory Hadsell, the vice chancellor of technology for the Foothill-De Anza Community College District. When the fraudster sets up direct deposit, they only need a bank account and routing number, not a name to match the one on their application.

Scammers also changed their approach at the San Diego district after officials there successfully started sniffing them out by detecting that they were using virtual private networks (VPNs), which create a connection between the user’s computer and a network in another location, making it appear like the fraudster is in that location. For example, one student applied with their VPN set to a Los Angeles location, but their IP address showed they were actually in China.

Rather than VPNs, the fraudsters this past year started using burner phones, which come with a business IP address, said DeVore, adding that it’s harder to determine whether those are legitimate. “They switched up their game,” he said.

To add another layer of fraud detection, the Foothill-De Anza district is one of two in a trial test with an artificial intelligence platform, Lightleap, to identify potential scammers by analyzing “key data and behavioral elements,” according to a report presented to the state’s board of governors this summer.

The AI platform, for example, can identify “fraud clusters,” such as when many applications are coming from the same IP address, Hadsell said.

Vasconcellos, who wants to similarly use AI at the Peralta district, said she is hopeful it will become a more common fraud detection tool, both at her district and across California.

“We just need to keep learning and keep trying to get ahead of it,” Vasconcellos added. “They keep changing, and we have to keep changing to address whatever new things, new ways they’re trying to get through.”

Delilah Brumer, a former member of the EdSource California Student Journalism Corps, contributed reporting.

Source link

04/05/2025
California’s college financial aid chief on FAFSA chaos, concerns about Trump and more

Daisy Gonzales, the executive director of the California Student Aid Commission, speaking at Hancock College in 2019.

Credit: California Community Colleges

When Dr. Daisy Gonzales took over as executive director of the California Student Aid Commission in June, she stepped into the position at a tumultuous time on the financial aid front, marked by state budget deficits, outside schemes to defraud financial programs and concerns over what President-elect Donald Trump will mean for undocumented students.

Among her first priorities: making sure more students apply for financial aid this year following declines in 2024 amid the chaotic and oft-delayed rollout of the federal government’s revamped Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). The U.S. Department of Education last month made the 2025-26 version available. Most students in California use that form to access both state and federal aid for college costs. FAFSA completions in the state declined by an estimated 10% among incoming freshmen in 2024, mirroring a national decline, as students and families found it difficult to access and complete the form in a timely manner.

The state student aid commission (pronounced See-Sack by insiders) oversees more than $3.5 billion in state grants available to college students mainly based on need. That includes the Cal Grant, the state’s main financial aid awards that come in various types for tuition, living allowances and career or technical programs. The commission also oversees the Middle Class Scholarship, which can provide substantial grants to underwrite attendance at California’s public colleges and universities for students from families earning up to $217,000 a year.

In addition, the commission runs the California Dream Act Application for undocumented students, who can use it to apply for Cal Grants despite not being eligible for federal aid. Some students, including those who have citizenship or legal residency but an undocumented parent, may still be fearful to fill out any financial aid applications out of concern that information will be shared with the federal government. President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to deport undocumented residents when he takes office next year. State officials promise that Dream Act information will not be shared.

Meanwhile, community colleges in California and across the country continue to be plagued by financial aid fraud. Scammers, posing as students, enroll at the colleges for the sole purpose of stealing financial aid. California’s community colleges have lost more than $7.5 million this year alone to such fraud.

Dr. Gonzales was deputy chancellor of California’s community college system before joining the aid commission in July. She also served as the system’s acting and then interim chancellor. She was selected to her current post by the 15 members of the commission, 11 of whom are appointed by the governor and another four by the Legislature.

Previously, she was a consultant for the Budget and Appropriations Committees in the state Assembly. She has a bachelor’s degree from Mills College and received both a master’s degree and a doctorate in sociology from UC Santa Barbara.

She recently spoke with EdSource. The following conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.

What is the Student Aid Commission doing to ensure students are completing the FAFSA this year?

We’ve been working differently with Cal Volunteers and training all of their volunteers to learn about financial aid, because they’re the boots on the ground. And even working differently with our segments. I’ve been really grateful to the community colleges. I gave them the data of those districts and colleges where we are leaving students behind, and they immediately got to work doing professional development, deploying messaging. (Cal Volunteers is a state office charged with increasing volunteering. Its College Corps program provides stipends for college students who volunteer.)

It was also important that I could hear directly from students. So I’ve also launched a student council where all the student associations (at local community college districts) have appointments on that council, and then they are activating their associations to educate students about financial aid, the deadlines, and even solutions to some of the common barriers that they face.

President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to deport undocumented residents. What guidance are you giving to undocumented students or students who have undocumented parents and are worried they could expose them by filling out the FAFSA?

We believe in providing students and their families with the information that will allow them to consider all of their options. We know that there are many concerns around privacy protections for individuals without a Social Security number.

Last year, the commission opened the Dream Act application to students from mixed-status families (those with both documented and undocumented individuals), and we are maintaining that. And so for any student, particularly if you’re a first-time applicant, if you have a family member, a parent, or a spouse that is a part of your application that does not have a Social Security number, you are being invited to complete the Dream Act application. We also have to inform you that as a part of not completing a FAFSA, you will not be able to benefit from federal aid. And our job is to help you understand that it’s your choice. And that applying is a family decision. Here at the commission, we protect your data. However, there are no similar federal reassurances that we can provide.

Are you doing any messaging to make sure students know that any information they submit via the California Dream Act Application is not shared with the federal government?

We redid our website so that we could have a very clear message around our data security. You can also then click on that message and it’ll show you additional information that’s important as you’re making your decision on whether to file a California Dream Act Application or FAFSA. We’ve also been deploying messages. For the first time, at least in the last several years, we actually sent out a notice that went to all education leaders — meaning the K-12 superintendents, the higher education presidents and CEOs. They all got the same message. And it was a message saying that our job is clear. We need students to stay enrolled. We need to offer them a safe option. And that is the California Dream Act Application.

There has been a big push by lawmakers in recent years to reform the Cal Grant by simplifying it and making more students eligible for aid, especially low-income community college students. That reform hasn’t happened because of state budget constraints. Is it still a priority of yours?

I’m here with a very clear mission to transform financial aid. I believe that it’s something that we can do together. And in doing so, then that means we are building financial aid pathways that are centered in student success. Yes, we need Cal Grant equity to be a reality, but that’s not yet funded.

But there are still so many other things that we can be doing. So, for example, I envision a California financial aid system that’s actually predictable. What would it look like to have an expedited renewal process for aid? I hear that as the No. 1 burden for students and families.

Another example I can give you is foster youth. They end up having to fill out two to five different applications. So at the commission, they might do three applications, if they qualify for those programs. And then when they get to a college, they still have to fill out an application for institutional aid. And so I challenged the team here at the commission, and I said, “What would it look like to create one application where we can ask students about all of the additional special programs that California has?” We need to be able to do this differently.

Even though Cal Grant reform was not funded in the latest state budget deal, there have been other ideas floating around about how to come up with that funding. One suggestion was to create a new tax that would raise dollars for financial aid. Are there other creative ways to possibly raise new funding?

There are many other states that do have additional taxes, particularly on alcoholic beverages. There are also so many different ways that I think we can move the needle here in California. I think we can do a better job in general communicating with students about what exists, how do they access it, and how we can actually help them achieve their end goal much faster. There are many other things that we can and should be doing.

What are your expectations for the 2025-26 state budget? Are you worried there could be further cuts to financial aid?

Nothing can be taken for granted, especially in a difficult year. We have a number of new legislators. So for me, it’s about reeducating, reaching out, building that relationship, especially with new elected officials. We’ve had to cut funding for the commission already by 7.95%. All state agencies received the same reduction. There was also a hiring freeze here at the commission. And all of this happened before I arrived. I don’t take anything for granted. I know it’s a really difficult year, but I also know that poverty has been increasing in the state. And so when I go out and advocate, I’m advocating for our students, and I’m defending the dollars that we have while helping California build pathways for many more Californians.

On another topic, California’s community colleges have lost millions of financial aid dollars this year and in recent years to fraudsters. Is there anything the student aid commission can do or is doing to alleviate the fraud? Or does that responsibility fall to the colleges?

I think the challenging thing about fraud is it keeps getting more sophisticated. Our campuses play a really critical role in identifying that fraud. And they are best positioned. But the commission can be a part of the alert system and a part of the professional development process. I’ve also asked for additional IT positions through the state budget process to be able to deal with some of these situations.

Source link

28/04/2025
California extends state financial aid deadline until April 2

Sierra Community College in Rocklin.

Credit: Sierra College / Flickr

Este artículo está disponible en Español. Léelo en español.

California officials are giving students an extra month to meet the state financial aid priority deadline, saying fewer high school seniors have finished paperwork so far this year due to delays in the Free Application for Federal Student Aid and uncertainty about federal education policy and immigration enforcement.

The California Student Aid Commission, whose executive director approved the 30-day extension from March 3 to April 2, reported a 25% drop in the number of California high school seniors who have completed financial aid applications this year compared with the same point in 2023.

The April 2 state priority deadline is the date by which students planning to attend a four-year institution must file applications for most state aid programs, including the Cal Grant. Students seeking Cal Grants to attend a community college can apply through Sept. 2. Students have until June 30, 2026, to complete the application for federal awards like Pell Grants.

The decline in completed applications is due in part to a two-month delay to the start of the federal 2025-26 financial aid application cycle, commission officials said. The Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, opened on Dec. 1 following the troubled rollout of the 2024-25 FAFSA. The form is typically available to students on Oct. 1.

People who work directly with students also say that concerns about the administration of President Donald Trump are giving some families pause about whether to file for federal student aid this year. The decision is especially fraught for students with undocumented family members in light of Trump administration rhetoric promising an unprecedented crackdown on unauthorized immigration. Federal law bars the use of data submitted through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, for any use other than determining financial aid, but both the National College Attainment Network and the California Student Aid Commission have cautioned mixed-status families that the federal form may not protect their data going forward. The California commission has recommended that families fearful of federal immigration enforcement complete the California Dream Act Application, or CADAA, a state financial aid program that does not share information with the federal government.

“Some of the parents are saying, ‘If they take me, they take me. But my kid is going to apply for financial aid for college’,” said Jasmin Pivaral, senior director of college culture at the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, an organization that works with five high schools in Los Angeles Unified. “It’s been really sad and really challenging to hear that parents are having to make this difficult decision, and we have no sense right now what kind of mental toll this is taking on students.”

The Trump administration has also threatened to shut down the U.S. Department of Education and pursued other efforts to freeze federal funding. Linda Doughty, the director of the San Diego and Imperial Counties Cal-SOAP Consortium, which works to boost college participation, said some families have mistakenly concluded that federal student aid will not be available next school year as a result.

“Our parents thought they canceled financial aid,” said Doughty, whose group is helping to organize several free financial aid workshops at area schools this weekend. “That’s misinformation.”

Doughty and her Cal-SOAP colleagues are among the organizations around the state working with the commission to host Cash for College workshops where students and their families can get advice from financial aid experts to file the FAFSA or CADAA. As of Thursday morning, there were 140 such workshops scheduled virtually as well as in person in cities including Bakersfield, Norwalk and San Bernardino.

EdSource reporter Zaidee Stavely contributed to this article.

Source link

19/04/2025