Hurry Up, Please, It's Time

Last Saturday, I noted the connections of several Department of Education officials to the industry they were supposed to be overseeing. Today's NY Times reports that one of those officials, Theresa S. Shaw, head of the Federal Student Aid Office, has resigned.

Under criticism that it has been lax in policing the $85 billion student loan industry, the Education Department announced yesterday that the chief official responsible for overseeing the loan program was stepping down. ...

Ms. Shaw was appointed in 2002 by Education Secretary Rod Paige after 22 years in industry, mostly at Sallie Mae, the largest student lender. [Emphasis added]

The timing of Ms. Shaw's departure is interesting: Secretary of Education Frances Spelling will be testifying before a Congressional committee in the next week or so. I guess Sec. Spelling hopes the resignation of Ms. Shaw will end that line of inquiry, but that looks unlikely. Democrats have made it clear that they intend to pursue the issue of the connection between department officials and such lenders as Sallie Mae.

Something else in the article struck me as interesting: much of the work in uncovering the problems at Education was done not by the department's inspector general or by congressional inquiry. It was done by various state attorneys general, including New York's Andrew Cuomo. Once again, the states have had to step in because nobody at the federal level was interested in doing any oversight.

Now, it's Congress's turn and it looks like this Congress just might be up to the task.

It's about time.