Washington, D.C. – With the Government Accountability Office (GAO) announcing that it found nothing wrong with the way it prepared its report on recruiting practices at career colleges and universities despite being forced to significantly revise it, the Student Access Student Choice (SASC) coalition called on the Federal auditor to make public any and all documents related to the report, its findings and review.
Although the authors of the report revised many of the examples that formed the basis for its conclusions, the GAO has not made available all documents and information concerning the report, its findings or the review that took place.
“The GAO’s credibility took a big hit when it was forced to revise its original report so one would think that it would take great pains to be as transparent as possible about the way it went about conducting its work,” said Phil Singer, spokesperson for the Student Access Student Choice (SASC) coalition. “The fact that all documents and information related to the report, its findings and subsequent review are not being made publicly available tells you everything you need to know about the integrity of the process.”
Singer continued, “More to the point, the GAO has every incentive under the sun to say the report was fine and no reason to be self-critical in spite of the fact all the work was done at the expense of taxpayers. This announcement should be taken with a grain of salt.”
The original GAO report inaccurately depicted the way career colleges and universities operate and cast unfair aspersions on schools that are playing an increasingly prominent role in equipping Americans with the skills they need to enter and thrive in the workforce. As a result, it formed the basis for the Department of Education’s efforts to start advancing a proposal called “gainful employment” that, if enacted, would make it much harder for veterans, lower income parents and others to pursue degrees at career colleges.
