Patriot Brief

  • What Happened: Federal investigators say massive numbers of “ghost students” are enrolling in community colleges to collect loans and grants, then vanishing without attending classes.

  • Why It Matters: Taxpayer funded aid programs are being exploited at scale, exposing serious failures in oversight and enrollment verification.

  • Bottom Line: Weak controls and open enrollment policies have turned student aid into a cash machine for fraud.

 

This is what happens when the federal government throws money around with no adult supervision.

According to Department of Education investigators, the student loan and grant system is being looted by so called “ghost students” who sign up for classes, collect financial aid, and disappear. No coursework. No intention of earning a degree. Just free cash from taxpayers.

The scale is staggering. The Department of Education’s assistant inspector general for investigation said as many as one third of community college enrollments may be fraudulent. That is not a rounding error. That is a full blown collapse of basic oversight.

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Jason Williams, a federal investigator, said community colleges with open enrollment policies are especially vulnerable. Schools that accept nearly all applicants make it easier for scammers to flood the system with fake identities. Some colleges have admitted that more than a third of recent applicants were not real students at all.

If this sounds unbelievable, that is because it should be. Americans were told student aid programs were about opportunity and workforce development. Instead, they have become a magnet for organized fraud while Washington looks the other way.

Skeptics might argue this is just the cost of accessibility. That argument falls apart when billions of dollars are being siphoned off by people who never set foot in a classroom. This is not compassion. It is negligence.

Under President Trump, fraud enforcement was prioritized and agencies were expected to protect taxpayer dollars. Today, the system is wide open, the money is flowing, and the victims are the Americans forced to pay the bill.

This is not just an education problem. It is a government accountability problem. And right now, the government is failing badly.