Slow, unsure

Those expecting swift and decisive action by the U.S. Department of Education on the financial aid scandal at Maine State Academy of Hair Design should not feel disappointment. They just need a clock that ticks in glacial time.

Six years after DoE uncovered student loan irregularities — some dating back to 1971 — at the four-campus beauty school and did nothing about them, two months after the Finance Authority of Maine finally got wind of the problems and shut the school down, federal and state officials met in Washington Thursday to figure out how to help to 200-plus stiffed students and how to make sure such stiffing never happens again.

In lieu of the swift and decisive, here’s what the meeting produced: an agreement that those scammed students will be eligible for more loans in the future; a promise that when the feds review Maine for-profit schools in future, they will tell Maine what they find; and, best of all, the appointment of a DoE deputy director as the “point person” to address the needs and concerns of the students.

Point Person promptly pronounced the parley as proper. The meeting didn’t just take steps or sort things out, she said, it went hog wild and actually “advanced the dialogue.”

Now, advanced dialogue is dialogue of the finest kind, but it’s not what the situation requires. Although students who were enrolled in the school within 90 days of its forced closure have had their worthless loans forgiven, the money’s coming out of the federal treasury. Many previous students borrowed for their tuition, then withdrew from the school when it didn’t deliver on its promises and never got refunds. That’s not the right way to treat either the American taxpayer or working class folks trying to learn a trade. The academy’s owners withheld refunds for 26 years, put relatives on the payroll and used financial aid funds to buy race cars, which they promptly wrecked. They should be fined heavily (FAME suggests $5 million), with the proceeds used to repay all innocent parties. Then they should be prosecuted or, at the very least, prohibited from ever touching student-loan money again.

Don’t hold your breath. DoE’s inspector general is still inspecting, generally, and there’s been no determination yet on whether any wrongdoing was done. In six years, the federal government can put away a busload of drug lords, terrorist bombers and organized crime chieftains, but apparently beauty school operators are tougher nuts to crack.

For now, then, focus upon the small change, the piddling quarter of a million or so foozled away by the Maine Academy of Hair Design. Try not to think about the other $50 billion in student financial aid the DoE oversees. And watch out for speeding glaciers.